Should we respond to those who are being negative about the church?

So, sometimes there's groups that are quite negative about the church. In these times, it may be difficult to know if the church should respond (or we should respond in a more local or individual way) or not. I think the answer is, it depends.

See this from D.C. 71:

7Wherefore, ^aconfound your ^benemies; call upon them to ^cmeetyou both in public and in private; and inasmuch as ye are faithful their ^dshame shall be made manifest.

8Wherefore, let them bring forth their ^astrong reasons against the Lord.

9Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you—there is no ^aweapon that is formed against you shall prosper;

10And if any man lift his voice against you he shall be ^aconfoundedin mine own due time.

In this instance, the answer was for Joseph and Sidney to stop their work translating and respond to the negative press by preaching the gospel but also speaking directly to the topics the enemies were mentioning.

I think it makes a lot of sense to preach the gospel in most instances when there's opposition. In other words, give our message without responding to their message. However, clearly there's times when it's important to respond. When are those times? I'm not exactly sure. It must be when the church's progress will be slowed (which likely means too many people are negatively affected and will slow the church's ability to reach out to them) so as to make it important to respond. How often is that? Tough to know. It probably requires revelation/inspiration to know when to respond and when not to.

Have a good week.