Please tell me how these two lines can be taken in any different way? >The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. I can not fathom any possible misunderstanding of this line. Here is the rest of the set from John >4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's[b] seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. It is evident that people that support sin and keep sinning are children of the devil. It is one thing to be a sinner unintentionally, but to actively support and advocate sin is clearly not of God. Would you do something that supports the devil? Also you might want to take note of this, there is zero tolerance for fake Christians: > 1 Chor 5 - 9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister[c] but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. . >People have free will, so they have free speech- we should not be taking away either God gave us free will. What makes you think that man can take that away? What makes you think that man can take away someone choice to follow God? You are defending a pointless thing that only allows more sin in. If you open a gate to get out, you also open it so things can come in. > My pastor is not afraid to say homosexuality is a sin. He also says we should love the person and not the sin Then please tell me why you love sin enough to allow people to spread it freely? Aren't we to hate sin? Should we not want to stop it from spreading? What is harder to enforce and deal with? The cure or the prevention? Sin is a snowball. The bible is full of examples saying the moment you accept sin, you will lose everything because of it. Would you allow a convicted pedophile who is on the run from the law, safe haven in your home? Would you leave them alone with your children? Would you want them talking to your children about their habits? I mentioned the earlier church before, because there were two main parts of the church back then, unlike now where we really only have one. The brothers and sisters in the new testament lives amongst each other as a single society. Not just once a week, but daily. The teachers and preachers would leave the church to go out into the streets and temples to preach. If you could build a 100% God fear society, would you allow people who purposely hate God in? You know, like muslims into the west? No. You wouldnt. You would send people out to help these people. This is what missionaries were, are and have always been for.