When I was young, TV was filled with Westerns in which a man was usually defined by his prowess with his fists or a gun. That motif or concept seems almost entirely gone. In it's place, I often see the Christian idea of loving your enemies in popular culture, especially children's programs. I marvel that schools now care about bullying - or that beating your wife or kids is no longer acceptable - or that tolerance is generally the order of the day.
It might seem unfair to lump the brave compassion of a young Muslim girl in with a "Christian" idea but along with Gandhi, I think that's where the world got a popular notion of hoping for positive change in one's enemies. Both Islam and Buddhism have notions about compassion but not the central emphasized image of a Savior who endures the torments of opposers without seeking revenge.
The Civil Rights movement was the greatest moral or ethical triumph of my lifetime. While Martin Luther King was inspired by Gandhi, I doubt anything would have succeeded without a fertile background of Christian thought about loving others, even amidst hate and violence.
It has taken centuries to get past racism and the Crusades and more - and we still have a ways to go. Nevertheless, it is wonderful to look back and see how far a strong concept/image of forgiveness has taken us as a society. An idea can 'grow legs' and take on a life of its own, even if many people have no affiliation with a religious culture that spawned it.
While there are many disproofs of the 'worse and worse' notion among Witnesses, this laudable change in ethics is often overlooked. We don't live in a "Gladiator" culture anymore - as when Paul talked about 'critical times hard to deal with'!
Even with ISIS and more, this human world is becoming a better place.
metatron