A radical devotion to the Lord will gain respect, when accompanied with grace and peace.Of course there are exceptions around the world, but in our Western culture, this is generally the case.
Atleast that's some insight I've gleened from reading "The Gentle Boy," a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It's a work of historical fiction.
It centers around a young 6 year old boy who lives in Boston
during the 1650's. He and his family are Quakers, and have been in prison
for that "offense". In 1656, there was a very real event of 4
Quakers being executed for their faith at the hands of the ruling Puritan
government. The story is based on these deaths, with one of the men being
this boy's father. The boy's name is Ibrahim, and his birth mother, after being arrested, was "discarded" into the
wilderness.
