“Your audience probably won’t read anything I’ve written.” I hear that more often than you might expect from guests considering joining me on my podcast. It is usually said politely, almost in passing, but the assumption behind it is unmistakable. They expect hostility. They assume a conservative Christian platform means confrontation, not conversation.
That assumption can be frustrating, but it is also revealing. It says less about me and more about the cultural climate we now inhabit. Turn on cable news, doom scroll on social media, or listen to commentary on political podcasts. The same pattern emerges.
Everyone is shouting.
Everyone is shouting. Everyone is certain. Everyone assumes the worst about those who disagree.
Sadly, Christians are not immune. We are tempted either to retreat into silence, convinced the culture is too hostile to engage, or to enter the fray with the same anger, suspicion, and venom that shape the world around us. Neither response reflects our role as an ambassador for Christ.
We cannot sit quietly while truth is redefined around us.
For years, I have urged believers not to surrender the public square, but to engage it with conviction shaped by Christ. Our faith requires public courage. We cannot sit quietly while truth is redefined around us.
But boldness is not the same as belligerence.
One way I try to live that out is by inviting guests onto my show with whom I strongly disagree. Most of my guests share my convictions, but occasionally someone accepts the invitation from a very different perspective.
Most popular media outlets reward outrage and suspicion.
The few who do often say something revealing. They expect confrontation rather than conversation. That expectation reflects what our culture has taught them here in the USA. Most popular media outlets reward outrage and suspicion. It trains people to expect attack, not dialogue. Christians should resist that pattern.
Even those outside the faith have recognized something we often forget. During the Leopold and Loeb trial in Chicago, lawyer Clarence Darrow argued that he could hate the sin without hating the sinner. Though he rejected Christianity, the idea reflects a deeply Christian truth, one Augustine also captured: “We are called to love people while opposing sin.”
To love someone is not to affirm everything they believe or do.
But that idea is often misunderstood: To love someone is not to affirm everything they believe or do. It is to tell the truth without denying their humanity. If we truly believe every person is made in the image of God, then we must learn to separate error from the person who holds it. The Bible does not call believers to choose between conviction and gentleness. It calls us to both.
Paul reasoned with people in synagogues and marketplaces. Jesus corrected Pharisees, tax collectors, and even his own disciples. He did not affirm falsehood. He exposed it. But He did so through conversation. He asked questions. He listened. He answered. He had to reveal truth.
Too often we assume those who disagree with us must be malicious or foolish. Years ago I complained to my pastor about how obvious certain truths seemed to me. He responded with a simple observation: “When you say, ‘Can’t they see?’ it means they can’t.” That changed how I think.
My responsibility is to speak truth faithfully, with clarity and love.
If someone cannot see what seems obvious to us, shouting will not restore their sight. Spiritual blindness is real. My responsibility is to speak truth faithfully, with clarity and love, and to trust God with what I cannot control.
This is especially important for Christians with platforms. Engaging someone with a different view is not the same as endorsing them. When I invite progressive or atheist guests onto my show, some conservatives accuse me of platforming. Conversation is not endorsement. It can expose error. It can clarify it. And it can model how to disagree without contempt. The alternative is an echo chamber.
If we only speak to those who already agree with us, we create spaces that harden assumptions rather than test them, and that is not faithfulness, but insulation. Christians are called to bear witness to the truth and trust the Holy Spirit, not to manufacture agreement through pressure or performance.
Engagement requires courage. It also requires humility.
Engagement requires courage. It also requires humility. Christians should speak clearly about what is true. We should refuse to compromise what God has revealed. But we must also remember that the person across from us is not an enemy to defeat but a human being made in God’s image.
That means asking questions. Listening carefully. Disagreeing honestly without contempt.
In an age defined by outrage, Christians have an opportunity to model something different. Not softer convictions. Not weaker truth. But steadier character.
The world does not need louder Christians. It needs faithful ones.
Peter Demos is the president and CEO of Demos’ Brands and Demos Family Kitchen. A Christian business leader from Tennessee, Demos uses his biblical perspective and insight gained from his own struggles to lead others to truth and authenticity in a broken world. Demos is the author of “On the Duty of Christian Civil Disobedience,” “Afraid to Trust” and new book “Bold Not Belligerent.” To learn more, visit peterdemos.org.
