Hi David,

I see your point and that's why at some point I make sure to draw a distinction between respecting a person (and their human rights) and respecting their religious belief which in my view are two different things because there are religious beliefs as a whole and religious traditions that aren't worthy of respect.

For instance in Africa at some point, as part of one of their religions, used to sacrifice their children and kill twins to appease the gods. Another tradition mandated a man to give his wife to a visitor for the night as part of "courtesy", Islam strictly speaking (and as is practised in core Islam countries today) permits a person to marry a 6 year old girl, would you (with all my respect to you and your family) have permited a fully fledged adult man to wife your daughter when she was 6 out of respect for his feelings, wishes and tradition?

But again, there is a fine line because Christians cannot, in the quest to reach out to non-Christians, compromise on what they know/ought to know is the truth of the gospel or fabricate common grounds that Biblically speaking just aren't there...but as you rightly say they cannot be jerks for no reason either because that would be counter productive.

Jesus Himself called out hypocrisy, used some choice language on the arrogant religious elite of His day in Matthew 23 and flipped the tables of merchants at the temple. So there was a degree of "prioritising truth and what is right over people's feelings"-ness about Him, if that makes any sense..

Apologies for the lengthy response, you raised a very good point which I think needed a bit more than a few words of response.

God bless.