This was taken from an interview with Russell Moore posted on CT. (It’s a transcript, so it’s not the most articulate piece ever, but you get the gist of what he’s getting at - Stop demonizing Christians you don’t agree with, because it discredits you when they turn out to not fit your caricature.)
"It’s not so much that we are afraid of non-Christian people who may be hostile to what we believe. A lot of it is more fear of other Christians. A lot of the kind of engagement that we see has nothing to do with people on the outside at all; it has everything to do with this constant loop of reassuring other Christians, “I’m part of the team, and I’m part of the tribe, and the way that you know that is because I’m giving these talking points about how awful the people on the outside are.” That’s not just a challenge for people who are in public ministries—it’s a challenge for anybody with a Facebook page.
One of the major things has to be to genuinely love and identify with people who disagree with you to the point that you understand why they hold the views that they hold. And that takes a lot of time and effort and a lot of relationship building. If you get up and you do this sort of ministry that isn’t really about persuading people on the outside, but it’s just about encouraging Christians you’re not crazy and “here’s why the other view is stupid and evil,” there are people who are overhearing that who are then going to meet people and realize they don’t stand up to the caricature. And then you’re going to end up losing those people. When people actually encounter these people, they see a much more complex view."
I’m going to keep this one in my back pocket in case it ever comes up with my SBC friends that I am one of “these people” with the more complex view that is not as “stupid and evil” as Ken Ham has alleged.