I came across an excellent piece of advice in Greg Koukl’s excellent new book, Tactics: A Game-Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions
“Always make it a goal to keep your conversations cordial. Sometimes that will not be possible. If a principled, charitable expression of your ideas makes someone mad, there’s little you can do about it. Jesus’ teaching made some people furious. Just make sure it’s your ideas that offend and not you, that your beliefs cause the dispute and not your behavior.”
A good word.