1. Sincere people who are honest and genuinely love truth (whether religious or not). Such people can be found in all religions and people groups.
2. Criminals.
3. Evil ideologies and beliefs
When dealing with individuals we should assume that they belong to the first category. We should aim to be winsome. We must be kind. (But we don’t have to lie or deny difficult truths to do this.)
The second category wants us not to oppose them. They don’t care what we do, just as long as we don’t draw attention to their crimes. They’d be happy if we all just played X-Boxes, watched The Voice, went to the beach etc, so that they can continue with their business (the business of crime). They hate those who oppose them and do all that they can to silence them (whether it be threats, violence, lawfare, labelling, or even appealing to “civil rights”). They love the foolish and the weak (love to take advantage of them). Criminals weigh the benefits against the costs. The less the cost, and the greater the benefit, the more attractive the crime. They do not want the punishment to match the crime.
Those in the third category do not believe their ideology or belief is evil. They believe it is good. (A good example are members of ISIS. They sincerely believe that we’d all be better off if we were living under a strict code of Sharia just like the four rightly guided Caliphs imposed.) These people want others to join their ideology or belief system. They do not want anyone drawing attention to flaws in their beliefs or any flaws in the character of the founder of their beliefs. These people want to silence all opposition. They cannot allow freedom of speech because it is harmful to their cause.