As The Federalist has recounted all too well, social and political pressure is mounting against Christians in the United States. Liberal media pounces on any Christians—be they Chip and Joanna Gaines or Karen Pence—who stray from the radical LGBTQ orthodoxy imposed on American society. Federal judicial nominees are censured by senators for allowing their religious beliefs to live too "loudly within" them.
For reasons such as these, many are afraid to be overt or confident in their faith. A good friend of mine attends a church that sells itself as "a church for people who don't go to church," whatever that means. This is presumably to distance itself from a historic, institutional Christianity many view as archaic, intolerant, or even oppressive.
Rather than cowering in fear or going on the retreat, however, Christians need to stand their ground and exemplify the kind of courage and obstinacy that defined the early church. What American Christianity needs is more people like St. Polycarp, whose feast day we honor on February 23.
