In the first three centuries of the post Christ era, Christians were not liked very much. At all.
In fact, they tended to get killed a lot. Crucified, beheaded, burned alive. Does the phrase "feeding the Christians to the lions" ring a bell? Yeah... Christians were NOT popular people. We were the scapegoats for everything wrong with the world - you know, the way Americans treat Muslims today. The way the Jews were for most of history, and for the most part are still treated.
When the Lord appeared to Constantine before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge on October 28th, 312 AD, Constantine declared his army to be a Christian army of the Lord and won a battle over his rival for the Roman throne, Maxentius. Though his army was barely half the size of its opponent, Constantine's men won the day bearing on their shields the symbol of "Chi", the first letter in the Name of Christ - and the shape of the Cross. From 312 on, the Roman Empire was a Christian Empire.
Now, it was safe to be a Christian in the Empire, the realm which ran the world. But being a "Christian" didn't mean you had to be saved. It just meant you had to play the role of a Christian. How could anyone tell whether you were or weren't saved? Only God can look into your soul.
As the Christian church became the Roman Catholic church, things actually got a bit worse. The papal line of leaders were not known for their piety. If you want a good lesson in depravity, read up on the bad popes of the Dark Ages, say, 800-1200 in particular. Christianity as a faith meant well, but it didn't accomplish most of the goals Christ would have wanted. Being a Christian didn't necessarily mean BEING a Christian.
And the same is true today. In fact, if anything, it's worse.
In America, where I live, I would argue that the best "thing" to be, the safest title to hold for yourself, is to say you are a Christian. Go to church occasionally. Own a Bible, and dust it often. Espouse reasonable and ethical beliefs: all people are created equal, "Coexist", take care of the downtrodden when it's convenient, that sort of thing. What that does is prevent anyone from rightly accusing you of being something that might make you a target in modern society - Muslim, I mentioned before, but most other major religions are frowned upon in the US. Your skin color isn't usually variable, but most versions of non-beige can cause you trouble with certain people in this or other western nations.
HOWEVER, the WORST "thing" you can be, in America or (I suspect) Europe for the most part, is to actually BE a Christian. Because if you actually LIVE the role Christ wants you to play, you're going to offend a large number of people. For example, "tolerance" is the ultimate by-word in culture today. Get along with everyone. And within reason, that's correct - except that God points out this little problem with the Rodney King theory of personal interactions ("Why can't we all just get along?")...
But if you're really a Christian, you have to ask yourself: Do you want those people to go to Hell when they die? How can you "love thy neighbor" and let them spend eternity in Hell?
Unfortunately, for societal purposes, that puts us at odds with political correctness. "Respect everyone else's beliefs!" That's terrible advice! "Don't persecute anyone for their beliefs - don't allow anyone to suffer because of their beliefs"... but don't let them go to Hell when they die because you were too busy "respecting" their sinful beliefs to share the Good News of the Gospel with them!
Christians must not fade into the background, as society wants people to do today. We are called to be the salt and light of the world, not oatmeal and mood lighting. If we do not stick our necks out and risk irritating someone by asking if they've accepted God as their Lord and Savior yet, we are not loving our neighbor.
Here are some more examples: being a "Christian-in-name-only" (a CINO) works well in modern America, because you can still go to a football game or the race track on Sundays. Can't stay in church past the start of the first game, now, can you? How many "Christians" do you know who actually KEEP the Sabbath holy? Who truly does NO work that day? Whose homework was done by Saturday? Who leaves the office AT the office on Sundays? How many CINOs do you think go to more than one church service during a week, or crack open the Bible outside of church, even on the Sabbath? How many of you parents ever read from the Bible to their children? How many "Christians" pray outside of one church session a week and the occasional emergency? Do your children ever see you pray outside of the preacher's eyesight? Being a Christian is a 24/7 job, because we are slaves to the Master of Creation, Who needs our obedience 168 hours per week. Being a CINO only requires an hour or two on Sundays. If the game's not on yet.
What about this detail? Ever notice how many politicians who claim to be Christians propose and lobby for and pass laws which are blatantly un-Christian? Laws that hurt the poor, hurt the needy, hurt the widows and the veterans, hurt the children, for Heaven's sake! Our President is the perfect example of someone who claims to be a Christian because it's an acceptable label in American society, but he lives his life as far away from God's Standards as possible. I have a friend who spent the (first) health care replace/repeal debates arguing with me that there IS no fundamental right to health insurance. My rebuttal argument was simple: I agree, it's NOT a basic right. But I'm more than willing to give up part of my tax dollars to help those who need it. (Especially if I can do so and get back the money going to presidential vacations every weekend and defending a tower in New York City because a billionaire's wife can't be inconvenienced to move to Washington DC. Oh, don't get me started here...)
It's very inconvenient for the rest of society to deal with us Christians and our beliefs. Let's try another one: "Coexist" and "Respect everyone's beliefs" are the watchwords of the LGBTQ community. If you really mean the dictionary definition of "coexist", that's probably acceptable. Christians are commanded to love our neighbors regardless of sins because we have just as many of our own. We've discussed the word "respect" in terms of "beliefs" already, so you know where I'm going with this: You are not doing anyone in the LGBTQ community a favor on God's green earth by allowing them to continue thinking that the Bible "misspoke" on homosexuality. God loves them as people, just as he loves you. God hates the sin that defines their community, just as he hates whatever sin that you have as a core feature of who you are - whether that be adultery, aggression, profanity, or so forth. And God hates all of our sins too much to allow us to keep practicing them. Never mind that it's probably innate, that it's probably not a "lifestyle choice" but something that they discovered about themselves in the course of growing up, just as your sin is probably something you've fought against before and discovered its in-grown nature in your soul. It's your duty to offer to help them understand that just as YOU have sin, so do THEY, and celebrating that sin is as far from God as they can get.
And yet, despite the claim that we are a Christian society, I guarantee that you will be labeled as "the intolerant one" in that conversation, a far worse crime in today's culture than practicing homosexuality and celebrating that in public. I have a gay nephew whom I love with all my heart. I have several gay former students whom I respect greatly. I have a trans former student of mine who was a girl when I taught her and is now a man; it helped him a great deal to go through that set of procedures. Is that a sin? Changing genders? God doesn't say per se, but since He tells us that He made us in the womb the way He wanted us to be, you'd think that not only our sexuality but any emotional or physical defects are also not only intentional but important to God to have given us. WHY? I don't know. But we are all given challenges, and some of the challenges we are given require great effort and sacrifice to overcome. Others merely require resisting a desire.
How do you go about actually being a Christian in a culture where what they want you to really do is to pretend that you're a Christian?
You just do. You ignore the call of the sinful world and you do the will of Christ. Help the poor, help the needy. Attend church and church functions. Read your Bible AND pray every day. Observe the Sabbath - for real, dudes! Make GOD priority number ONE, 168 hours a week. And most of all, as well as most irritatingly for CINOs... Share the Gospel with everyone in your circle of people - friends, family, colleagues at work. Be a great representative of Christ, a great role model, or else you've horribly undersold what you're supposed to be demonstrating!
And live like a Christian. Be humble, be level-headed, love, forgive, and be generous with all you have: time, love, resources, home. No matter what the world tells you to do.
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