Agree to disagree?

I know that God wants us to stick up for what we believe in, both in action and words, but it sometimes it's hard to know how to approach situations.

For one, I hate starting debates. I'm not good at debating, and I usually end up conceding points anyway. I think I usually end up doing more harm than good.

Second, many people think that when Christians stand up for things they believe in that it makes us bigots and hateful and people stop listening.

Third, I have sins in my life so I don't feel like I have a leg to stand on when it comes to pointing out the sins of others without being called a hypocrite.

We are expected to listen to people who have opposite views, but often when we openly speak about how we disagree they start calling names. They want us to listen to them but won't listen to us.

You can see this a lot now with the debates. Political conservatives get a lot of flack. More liberal people say that conservatives spit hate speech when all they are doing is standing up for what they believe in, because they have something other than "everything is good for me to do" to believe in.

I am proud when our politicians stand up for faith. I think it is wonderful when they can start healthy conversations and agree to disagree.

For instance, people post political views on Facebook and expect everyone to like them. However, I think that if I posted something contrary that people would virtually yell and scream and call me everything in the book - whether to my face or when talking to other people. That doesn't really seem to solve any problems but just create more barriers.

How do we share what we believe without creating enemies? We're supposed to share what we believe to reach people, not to put up walls.