It is a good and holy act for Christians to honor Mary and ask her intercession #2

"But before I begin a short word about the interpretation of Scripture: Jesus Himself stated (Matt 18:3, Mark 10:15, Luke 18:17) that in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (a Kingdom where Truth reigns supreme) we MUST become 'as children'. So, as the discernment of Scripture is obviously a key element to obtaining entry into the Kingdom, I ask all viewers of this debate (and my worthy opponent) to approach Scripture in this very spirit. ""My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight; they will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck. Then you will go on your way in safety, and your foot will not stumble. "-Proverbs 3:21-23I agree with my opponent that we must accept Scripture humbly as little children since it is the Word of God. However, I would remind the reader to 'put away childish things' (1 Corinthians 13:11) and use sound judgment and discernment when interpreting those bible verses which come into question. For this round, I will first address my case (which went mainly unaddressed by my opponent) and then follow up by addressing his reasons that he thinks Catholics worship Mary. As stated last round, there are two ways my opponent can win: 1) completely disprove one of my major points (Honoring Mary and Mary's Intercession) or 2) show that Catholics 'worship' Mary. My opponent did not argue any of my points, so I will assume the following to be true unless he addresses them in round 3:Honoring MaryCont. 1: Example of Scripture - Since we can see that Biblical characters honored Mary, we should as well. Cont. 2: Scriptural Prophesy - Since Mary prophesied that she would be honored, it is right that we should fulfill this prophesy. Mary's IntercessionCont. 1: prayer is good - Mary's prayers (like all prayers) can help us. Cont. 2: If Christ listened to Mary in the Bible, then he will still listen to her today. Conclusion: Since none of this was argued, the only way left for my opponent to win is if he can show that Catholics actually go beyond honoring and asking the intercession of Mary and in actuality worship her. This leads me to my opponent's case. Before I begin to refute his points, I would like to point out that most of his arguments are unfortunately based on definitional misunderstandings. With this being the case, I will represent the accepted definition of intercession and also define worship. Intercession - prayers made by one person to God for the benefit of anotherWorship -homagerendered to God which itis sinful (idolatry) to render to any createdbeing(Ex.34:14;Isa.2:8). Such worship was refused by Peter (Acts 10:25,26) and by an angel (Rev.22:8,9). . http://dictionary.reference.com......(Easton's1897BibleDictionary)Mary as IntercessorMy opponent's main argument her was that to honor Mary with the title 'Intercessor' is to put her in the place Christ (God) rightfully has. However, we merely have a confusion of terms here. When my opponent says that Christ is our Intercessor, he means that it is through His sacrifice that we receive God's forgiving grace (as his bible verses say). When Catholics call Mary intercessor (as you can see by the above definition I presented in Round 1) we merely mean a person who prays to God for us. Thus, a proper understanding of Mary's title as 'intercessor' reveals that Catholics do not give her any sort of 'worship' that is due to Christ. Woman and AuthorityMy opponent is arguing that since women should not have authority over men, we should not pretend that Mary has an authority of intercession. While his interpretation of the bible verse he uses is questionable, I will leave it be for now since there is a larger fallacy in this argument. One of my opponent's most important premises is that for Mary to help us, she must have some sort of authority over us. This is not the case. Mary helps us through intercession (i. e. prayer) just as any other person can help us through prayer. If a person needs authority over another to pray for them, then it would be wrong for any man to ask a woman to pray for them. Since I cannot possibly see Christ (or Paul) forbidding my mother or sister to pray for me, I see no problem with asking Mary to pray for me. Thus, we can see that Mary does not need any authority over us to intercede for us (of course assuming a proper definition of intercession). Virginity of MaryMy opponent is arguing here that to call Mary a virgin proves that Catholics worship her since he believes that the bible teaches otherwise. While I do personally believe that Mary was a virgin and that my opponent has misinterpreted the bible verses he presented, to argue this would be to step outside the bounds of our resolution. The simpler issue with this argument is that for Catholics to call Mary a virgin does not mean that we worship her. If there were a modern girl who may or may not have had sex with her boyfriend, no one would say I was worshiping her if I decided to believe that she was still a virgin. Just so, Catholics have a different interpretation of Scripture (whether it is the correct interpretation or not is irrelevant to this argument) in which we believe that Mary was a virgin. Even if we are wrong (which I obviously don't believe) we still cannot be charged with worshipping her because of this. Thus, we can see that neither of these three arguments show that Catholics worship Mary. My opponent had one final argument concerning the two following two bible verses which was rather vaguely made:Luke 11:27-28As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, "Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you. "He replied, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it. "Here my opponent seems to think that Christ is specifically saying that Mary is not 'blessed'. However, that is not Christ's point. Christ is merely using this as a chance to make the point that genealogy is not nearly as important as obeying God's commands. We know that this is the case because Mary herself fulfills the requirements Christ here sets up to be considered 'blessed'. When she heard the word of God through Gabriel asking her be God's mother, she replied 'Let it be done according to your word' (i. e. she obeyed God's command). Furthermore, if you look at other translations of this verse (. http://bible.cc......) you will find some such as the New Living Translation read "But even more blessed. .. " This tells us that the original did not intend to contrast Christ's statement with that of this woman, but only some translations. Matthew 12:47-49Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you. "He replied to him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers? " Pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. I assume my opponent is trying to show that Christ did not want us to honor Mary. However, once again Christ is merely using this statement as an opportunity to making a point. If Christ intended this to reflect badly on Mary, then it is phrased in a way which is akin to disowning her as his mother. This would be a deliberate violation of the 4th commandment and a sin. Since God cannot sin, we know this isn't the case. Christ is merely making the point that he wants to have an intimate relationship (such as the relationships within families) with all of us. He knows that Mary is his true mother and he loves her with the perfect love of a perfect son. Thank you, and I look forward to DATCMOTO's next rebuttal.