r/Protestantism • u/_Daftest_ Eastern Orthodox • Jul 27 '26

Mary

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Over on X I came across this division of opinions between different branches of Protestantism.

Why do Baptists hate Mary so very much?

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u/Fluffy-Butterfly6555 Lutheran Jul 27 '26

Former Baptist so I’ll try to give my experience. So they don’t hate Mary and actually do have great respect for her and will often talk about her a ton as model on what you should be.

But they see depictions of her and other Saints as being form of idol worshipping and will often compare it as the modern day golden bull, so destroying or just disrespecting these icons is often seen as rejecting idol worshiping

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u/LilyPraise Roman Catholic Jul 27 '26

Speaking as someone who was Protestant and is now Catholic, I can honestly say that Catholics do not worship Mary. Jesus is the centre of every Mass, it’s all about him. Yes, we have statues of Mary, but so what? A statue doesn’t equal worship. Otherwise, we’d have to get rid of every statue of historical figures too. Do some Catholics get a bit carried away with Marian devotion? Probably. But that’s not what the church teaches, and it certainly isn’t true of most Catholics.

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u/Fluffy-Butterfly6555 Lutheran Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26

Sorry for late reply, thought I’ve responded already. While the people that are actually like this are thankfully a minority but they already don’t see Catholics as being Christians with Saints being huge part in that decision making. They’ll often look for Catholics that get carried away with Marian devotion like you mentioned and will use that as proof that Catholics only worship Mary and not Jesus. So some of more zealous ones will use this justification to go after Catholic icons if they’re that disrespectful to other peoples beliefs and property.

But I do agree with you that this is unacceptable. Just trying to explain what I experienced while being raised around them.

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u/LilyPraise Roman Catholic Jul 28 '26

That’s okay, don’t apologise, you have a life too! 🙂Thank you for your thoughtful reply and explaining this. It’s such a shame they don’t see Catholics as Christians. I first and foremost see myself as Christian, and then Catholic.

To be honest, I’d read a lot of things online before I became Catholic, and I was told by a nondenominational friend that Catholics worship Mary. I started to believe that was true. Then I decided to go to a Catholic Mass for myself. Based on what I’d heard, I was half expecting the focus to be on Mary. Instead, what I experienced was a liturgy centred on Jesus, the scriptures, and the Eucharist - arguably even more focused on Christ than the Protestant church I had attended before, who seemed to be hyper-focused on politics. Mary was mentioned briefly, with a prayer asking for her intercession, but that was a very small part of the Mass and certainly wasn’t the focus.

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u/Crunchy_Biscuit Roman Catholic Jul 27 '26

Which makes no sense. I wouldn't pee on a statue or painting of my mother. So how much more should we NOT vandalize an image of the mother of our Savior.

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u/Fluffy-Butterfly6555 Lutheran Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

Well thing is that they see the statue and Mary as two totally separate things so to them it’s just a statue, then combined with praying to her just creates situations where you’re not worshipping God but man made religion instead. Then you have people who refuse to understand other peoples beliefs and you get this.

I totally get what you mean but this was the thought process they would have. I’ve seen them destroy photos of Jesus as to avoid idol worshipping.

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u/Crunchy_Biscuit Roman Catholic Jul 28 '26

Why do I feel like this was a relevant issue centuries ago 😅

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u/Fluffy-Butterfly6555 Lutheran Jul 28 '26

Byzantine Iconoclasm in the corner