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As a God-made creature, Mankind is a very visual species. Unless you are born blind, there is a very good chance that you think with your eyes. I dare anyone to declare that when they think of a word (a noun), that they don't have a visual image of it. Let me give you an example - when I tell you the word 'refrigerator' do you not picture a refrigerator in your head? It's probably a large white box of some sort and maybe it resembles a picture of your own refrigerator in your own kitchen. Now let me give you the word 'forest'. Do you see trees? As a non-denominational Christian I would love to find a Church. Recently, I have taken an interest in both Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy, not to dedicate myself to them nor join them, but purely to find out what they are all about. The biggest bugbear that I have with them however, is their use of icons. They have some similarities to Roman Catholicism, but in other ways they are completely different. I have since found out that they do not worship icons at all, but use them as focal points when praying. Now let me ask you all - do you find that wrong? Let me go back to my original point. How many of you when you hear the word 'God', form a picture in your head, no matter how brief or fleeting? I would place a safe bet that all of you do. Is God an old man with a white beard or does he look like someone else? Does it matter what he looks like as long as you acknowledge that your vision of him is not absolute and that it may be wrong? So, I need to ask you all. Are icons wrong? Can churches have pictures, images of saints, crucifixes and the like? Is it wrong to have stained glass windows, paintings of St. Francis, purple curtains, candles, pictures of the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus, or pictures of Archangels, Cherubim and Seraphim? Before you answer my questions, please ask yourself this question? Is Jesus a man with long hair and a beard? If so, why do you think that he is? The Bible never told us what he looked like.