Religious statues? (christian)?

does anyone please have some info on religious statues?
i need to write a paragraph on them for part of my GCSE coursework. heres what i have so far:
Statues are used in churches to represent saints. Usually there is a stand for votive candle (candles that remind us of the offering of prayers to God) in churches, which are lit to honour saints.
Some Christians don鈥檛 agree with using statues as praying aids, as they say that they are just images. Though others like to look at the people they model their lives on when they pray. Sometimes statues are called idols, but God said that people shouldn鈥檛 worship them. However, if the statues are used as an aid to prayer then they aren鈥檛 being worshiped, which is fine. Protestantism and Catholicism are also the only faiths that have statues of Mary.


help!

oh, and also some info about the tabernacle would be appreciated!

Statues are in use with many if not most religions. From early on people felt the need to worship something they can see versus a God that is invisible. Statues and other religious paraphernalia stared in ancient Babel. The bible clearly forbids the use of any images to represent God. He himself said:鈥淵ou must not make for yourself a carved image or a form like anything that is in the heavens above or that is on the earth underneath or that is in the waters under the earth. 聽You must not bow down to them nor be induced to serve them, because I Jehovah your God am a God exacting exclusive devotion, bringing punishment for the error of fathers upon sons, upon the third generation and upon the fourth generation, in the case of those who hate me; deuteronomy 20:4,5.

I am almost certain that Orthodox churches have statues of Mary too - they certainly have statues of other saints.

Votive candles are not a universal tradition. And of course, there are also statues of Jesus, often representing some stage of his execution.