[ealgeone]

I watched a documentary called “Convinced.” It’s a series of witnesses by protestants and atheists who “crossed the Tiber” and became Catholic. The most difficult thing, especially for Protestants, was to understand the devotion Catholics have to Mary. There is a lot of misinformation out there. Archbishop Fulton Sheen said that there are thousands of people who hate what they think are the teachings of the Catholic Church but very very few (now maybe a lot with the Muslim invasion) who hate what are truly the teachings of the Church. I challenge you to read Hail Holy Queen by Scott Hahn which goes into the scriptural Mary.

I challenge you to compare catholic teachings/writings on mary with the Word and see if they stack up.

No where does the Word accord Mary the title "queen"....or the many other false titles accorded to her by catholicism.

You're correct....Christians have a very hard time understanding why Catholicism has so elevated Mary to the position(s) she now occupies when it is not supported anywhere in the Word.

[Mercat]

Actually that is what Scott Hahn does. He’s a biblical scholar and much smarter than he is. I have no trouble making the same arguments that Mary is the mother of the church and of all Christians and the queen of heaven but he does it so well. And one of the misperceptions about Catholics is that we don’t read the Bible. I go to Mass on average two or three times a week and I read the daily readings well, daily. I have also read the entire Bible three or four times. I haven’t memorized it but have started to be able to say, “wait a minute, Paul says something about that in Romans, let me look for it.”

As far as proving a negative - hahaha. go for it.

[Bigg Red]

Please, sir, tell me where there is anything on this thread that commands you to believe as we Catholics believe. Marian devotion is part of Catholicism. Let me know if someone is coming to your church and demanding that you conform to our beliefs.