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Mary might be the most misunderstood woman who ever lived. Some say Catholics worship her, some treat her as a side character in the Gospel, and some worry that loving her takes something away from Jesus. With images of Mary in the headlines this week, it’s a good time to go back to Scripture and the Church and look at who she really is.

Scripture referenced: Exodus 25, Numbers 21, 2 Kings 18, 1 Kings 2 and 6, 2 Samuel 6, Genesis 3:15, Luke 1, John 2, John 19, Revelation 11–12

In this episode, I mention the incident that recently took place at Stedfast Baptist Church. Instead of making a reaction video that would not reach them, I decided to write them an email. Here is the email below:
Jonathan Shelley and the staff of Stedfast Baptist Church,

You stood in front of a room full of children, had them read the Word of God aloud, and then put a hammer in their hands and told them to smash the mother of Jesus Christ. I've watched a great deal of anti-Catholic content over the years, and I've rarely seen anything so cowardly, because you didn't even swing the hammer yourself. You handed it to children and let them carry it for you.

You read them half a commandment. The very next verse says, "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them," and a few chapters later the same God commands Moses to fashion golden cherubim for the Ark of the Covenant. He has Moses lift up a serpent of brass so the people who looked on it would live, and Jesus Himself points to that image as a figure of His Cross in John 3:14. Solomon carved cherubim and flowers across every wall of the temple, and the glory of the Lord filled it. Any pastor who preaches from the King James every Sunday knows these passages are there, which means those children were handed a carefully edited Bible right before they were handed a hammer.

The woman whose image they destroyed is the one Scripture says all generations shall call blessed. On the very same Sunday, October 11, your church posted a sermon titled "Obey Mom And Dad Like Your Life Depends On It," and I'd love to know how you explained that one to the same children who had just taken a hammer to the mother of Jesus. Christ kept the commandment to honor His mother more perfectly than any man who has ever lived, so you spent one sermon telling those kids to honor their mothers and another teaching them to smash His. I'd ask you to imagine standing before Him and explaining that.

Our Lord had something to say about the people responsible for children. He said that whoever causes one of these little ones to stumble would be better off with a millstone hung about his neck and drowned in the depth of the sea (Matthew 18:6). Those children trusted you. They will grow up with Catholic classmates, coworkers, neighbors, and maybe one day a Catholic husband or wife and the first thing their pastor ever taught them about those people was to pick up a hammer. That's a sin against them and they'll carry it long after the plaster is swept up.

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