Yes, you're going to get blasted, brother. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Quote
As I read this post, all I could think of is how beautiful it is when we are allowed to express our worship using the talents that God has given us. Art being a talent, I don't see a problem with using symbols and pictures to represent spiritual truths because if we don't allow people to paint a picture than what are we doing? We allow people to sing in church. We allow people to preach. We allow people to read poetry. How come painting a picture or making a sculpture is such a horrid thing?

I don't know how many people read poetry in church, but preaching and singing are commanded means of corporate worship. Painting pictures or sculpting statues, or contemplating these? Not hardly. So already there is a difference.

Quote
I do disagree with praying to those statues and paintings. But a lot of good can come from admiring how someone expressed their spiritual life. Looking at a statue of, for example, St. Francis may remind us that we need to love all and share Christ unashamedly. Or looking at a statue of Mary may remind us that Jesus was pure, born of a virgin.

Does that mean these ought to be displayed and contemplated during worship?

Quote
Or looking at a painting depicting a crucifixion may remind us that Jesus actually did go through pain on the cross and that he wasn't just given a spanking and hung on a couple boards and put in a hole.

What better than the gospel accounts themselves to remind us of this? Why should we need a crucifix, which not only cannot depict in any way the shame and pain of Jesus' sufferings, which were far more than physical, but also would be directly in violation of the Second Commandment, which forbids visual representations of God?

Quote
My point is, maybe we Protestants could learn something from the Catholics besides what not to do. What if the Catholics are right on this matter and Protestants came up with their interpretation of the second commandment as a way to not be Catholic?

There isn't any "what if." The Roman Church is wrong. Perhaps it may interest you that they lump the Second Commandment in with the first, while somehow dividing the Tenth so as to have a total of Ten Commandments? The reason for this is obvious: to justify the proliferation of statues, crucifixes, and icons in the Roman Church, and the veneration of these.

Kyle

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified.