The Christian Vénération of Icons Is a Legitimate Doctrinal Development

The Christian practice of showing respect to images of Jesus or the saints is fine in practice as long as you recognize that these are just symbols. But if you're bowing in front of an idol of Baal, that's a problem because you're not supposed to be worshipping Baal. And if you bow in front ofan image of Jesus thinking that it's literally Jesus, then that's aproblem too, because it's not. You shouldn't be judging other people's hearts, especially not without asking them what they're doing in their hearts.