For many people Christianity is a relatively “easy choice”. You might be subject to a bit of gentle teasing by others, and you might be criticised by people of other faiths or people who believe that there is no God, but if you live in a modern Western democracy you will not be arrested and persecuted because of your faith. It was not always this way for Christians, as indicated in the fourth chapter of Peter’s first letter:
Dear friends, do not be surprised about the fiery trial which you are going through, to test you, as if something unexpected was happening to you. Celebrate because you are sharing in Christ’s sufferings, and you will be able to celebrate even more when his glory is revealed. If you are abused for the sake of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
Something happened in the first part of the fourth century that changed the course of Christianity. The Emperor Constantine made Christianity into a state religion. Christians were no longer persecuted, and they became eligible for government funding. The persecuted turned into the powerful, and in the course of this transformation some of the distinctive elements of the Christian faith were lost. Those elements still exist in countries where Christians are persecuted today, and they may be recovered in the West if the power wielded by the church in the West continues to decline.