Cultural Differences

"Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies...Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!" (Psalm 27:11, 14 ESV)

The world is entirely opposed to Christianity because Christianity is entirely adjacent the world.
Christianity does not conform to the world nor the "progression" (a misnomer, as progression implies a measure of positive change; progress) of the world in such that the Bible does not change. It is a living thing, it affects everyone differently, but the words stay the same, and the world has an issue with any two-thousand year old text written that shapes lives today in different ways than it did a century or a millennium ago.
What's more, society is against a belief system that says that all people are equal, believers in it or otherwise. We crave exclusion, something that says we're of an elite group, even if we're not. That's why so many organizations exist, as well as titles and such. We always want to have a one-up on everybody else, and the Bible destroys that line of thinking by telling us that anyone can be saved, and that God loves all of us, even the sinners and the "Christ-killers." They are opposed to the idea of a merciful God who loves unconditionally and tells us that if we're to be truly abundant outwardly and inwardly, we must love both our neighbors and our enemies alike (as G. K. Chesterton said, “The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people”).

The world hates the idea of a murderer being no more a sinner than a petty thief or a liar or an adulterer (being one who looks at another with lust, not only those that have sexual relations outside of marriage). This ideology says that we all have sinned, and that all have broken part of the Law and, therefore, broken the whole Law, and that we must humble ourselves to overcome our offenses. And, simply put, people who have said a seemingly innocent "no" when the answer was "yes" or have malicious/hateful thoughts just don't want to be lumped in together with a murderer or a child molester.
So the only answer to how society sees the Christian culture is for them to shun it.
Jesus covered this, as did certain apostles, in saying the world will hate us because we're not like them, because of Christ's sake.

But i would like to look back, pre-Christ, for an answer, and the verses at the beginning of this post, though not written about this particular situation, are not irrelevant.
I don't want to call the world our enemy, but the world has set itself against Christians, be it in the tame mocking we receive here in the United States, or the martyrdom found in other nations. Persecution, in all its forms, of Christ is becoming quite rampant, so it is safe to say they're our enemies, whereas it's perhaps more precise to call us their enemies.
But if we have faith in God, He will lead us on a level path because of our enemies. So wait, be strong, have courage--wait for the Lord.

Be Still

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (Psalm 46:10; ESV)

"Be still," He says, "And know that I am God."

This is a very popular verse, but for great reason. It's a plea from God to us, His children.

If you've ever found a wounded, helpless animal and tried to help it, you can sort of grasp what God is saying here.
You reach for it, it draws back. You try to help it and it bites you, scratches you, does anything to put distance between you and itself, either by running away or trying to hurt you enough to make you leave it alone. But you know what's best for it. You have to get that wire untangled from its leg, that nail out of its foot, that rope off its neck. But it still fights you.

You talk to it, tell it that it'll be okay if it'll just let you help it, tell it to shush and to take it easy.
You say, in other words, "Be still, and know that I want to help you."

But God is more than able to help. And He wants to. He doesn't want you left in your misery, tangled up, bleeding, starving, or just stuck. He wants you to know that you're going to be okay if you just let Him have His way.
Be still. Stop fighting. Relax. It's okay, He's God, He knows what He's doing.

If you don't intervene, sometimes with force, the animal can -and probably will- die. It will not get free, only make things worse, and it will perish without water. You have to cover its head, hold it tight, speak softly, and work diligently. It can be tedious, aggravating at times, trying to get a wild animal past its fear of you.

And when you get it loose, it thinks it was of its own accord. It won't regard you as the one that saved it--not as well as you'd like at the very least.

This is how our plea to a wounded animal works. Scarcely are they willing to cooperate, nor are they in any way concerned about what you're saying, they just want to get out themselves.
We are the wounded animal; we are the ones resisting, the ones that would die if we don't give ourselves to God.

"Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live." (Ezekiel 18:31-32)

We don't want the helpless creature to perish, so we try and save it.
But God is not merely One who tries. He does.
He's able, and He will save those who let Him.
He beseeches you, "Be still, and know that I am God," and "turn and live."
He even asks us why we would die when we have the option to live. It makes no sense. The heart of man is folly, and we choose to die, each of us that does. He doesn't pleasure in that. It grieves Him. He's watching His children choosing to flee from Him and perish as He reaches out to them.
"Be still." Exactly what you're likely to tell a child that's doing something that could harm him- or herself.
Be still, and know that He is God, that He is love, that He is able, and that He is concerned for your best interest.