While various Protestant sects have their go-to complaints with what Catholics believe about salvation apart from grace (Catholics don’t believe that), worshiping saints (Catholics don’t do that), or even that the pope is the anti-Christ (he isn’t), there’s probably no one issue that galvanizes them more than the Marian doctrines, that Mary is elevated to the level of a deity. When Protestants hear her called “the mother of God,” they feel that their case is made, that Catholics are indeed pagan idolaters in “Christian clothing.” The real Mary, they think, would be horrified that she has been elevated to the status of a goddess by the Roman Church, since she was probably just a worship team leader in her local congregation. Okay, maybe they wouldn’t go that far, but still, Mary as the mother of God? It certainly sounds suspicious!