Were the Valar “demoted” at the end of the Second Age?

[Gordis]

Originally Posted by CAB

Wow Gordis, that almost sounded like sarcasm. I know you didn’t mean it that way though. (2nd smiley)

No, no sarcasm. Sorry if it sounded that way.

I had a previous (and rather recent) experience with a discussion turning into philosophical/theological dispute. It was on another forum, but the topic was similar: 'were Melkor's actions a part of Eru's design?".
I learned that such debates never lead to an agreement, because there is Tolkien'e early POV, there is rather different later Tolkien's POV, there is Christian POV which some equal with Tolkien's later POV, and the personal POV's of all the people involved. The debate becomes a catastrophe, and leads to hurt feelings of some who really take this to heart.
I simply feel that I:
1. don't care enough to participate and
2. I am out of my depth here.

As simple as that.

For me, this isn’t the real issue though. The problem I have is with giving absolute credence to a few quotes while (apparently) disregarding (or at least undervaluing) all the opposing evidence found in Tolkien’s works. I think we have to use Tolkien quotes + story + logic to come to any real (or if real is impossible, then “reasonable”) answers.

I fully agree. I think that letters can't be accepted as the absolute revelation. They were written to a given person, with their own beliefs, who often knew very little of Tolkien's world. Often the story retold in Letters is simplified, made more acceptable to the person in mind.