[RobbyS]

If we were talking about Sarah or Elizabeth, the favored mother of patriarchs or prophets, what you are saying make sense. But Jesus is certainly more than that. There is a tendency among those who deprecate Mary to assume a low Christology. The exaltation of Mary by the Church, which can be traced to early times, is a response to those Christians who deemphasized either the divinity or the humanity of Christ. Arius, in the 4th Century, sought a kind of middle ground, that honored Jesus but did not accept him as the incarnation of THE GOD, but as a creature. The Gnostics, who date from earlier times, did not regard him as quite human. Both heresies have this in common, that they think of Jesus as an embodied angel, rather than as the Nicene formula has it, true God and True man.

[boatbums]

I accept the doctrine that Jesus is true God/true man and also that he was born of a virgin as prophesied in Isa.7:14:

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

I also believe Mary was favored by God for this purpose. She was also of the lineage of David and that made Jesus true heir to the throne. She was pure and faithful. I do not believe, nor does Scripture teach, that she was sinless nor that she herself was immaculately conceived.

This does not demean her or Jesus Christ. It is stating what we know from the Word of God and what he has revealed to us. You MUST believe what your magesterium teaches even if it is man's conjecture or the arrived at agreement to arguments among religious scholars. You are not allowed to question or believe anything contrary to their teachings under fear of excommunication.

What does belief in Mary's perpetual virginity, her own sinless conception by her mother and her “direct line” to her son Jesus as a “Jewish mother” have to do with your salvation? Is it germane to the doctrine that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ? Does non-belief in those certain doctrines effect in any way the accepting of the free gift of eternal life? They are not. They are not major issues except to those that read more into the plan of salvation.