As all human beings are, in my view, creatures of God's design, we must respect all other human beings. That d... — Stockwell Day

As all human beings are, in my view, creatures of God's design, we must respect all other human beings. That does not mean I have to agree with their choices or agree with their opinions, but indeed I respect them as human beings.

Author: Stockwell Day

Insight: There's a useful distinction buried here that most of us blur together in practice. You can genuinely respect someone as a person while finding their choices or beliefs genuinely wrong. That sounds obvious, but it's surprisingly hard to actually do—especially online, where disagreement often slides into contempt pretty quickly. The real challenge is that respect isn't a reward we grant for good behavior or correct thinking. It's something we offer to someone's fundamental humanity, separate from whether we'd make the same choices they do. Your neighbor might raise their kids in a way you'd never choose, vote for candidates you can't support, or hold religious beliefs completely unlike yours. And you can still treat them with basic dignity because they're a person navigating the world just like you are. This matters precisely because we're not likely to agree on everything. We're going to encounter people whose worldviews puzzle or frustrate us regularly. The question isn't whether we can find universal agreement—we can't. It's whether we can maintain our convictions while still seeing the human being across from us as someone who deserves consideration, curiosity, and respect. That friction between disagreement and respect is actually where real conversation becomes possible.