Different people will have varying tolerances for difference. You will find a few people who will match you on every matter that is important. You will find others who don't. It is your choice to engage with or disengage from them - but some soul-searching is going to be very much needed. And this is where privilege becomes clear: are you disengaging because they make you feel uncomfortable? Or because they actual threaten your being or the being of someone close and personal to you?
I'm not talking about people who are active threats; I'm talking about 'nice people' who don't really see the problem. And yes, it involves taking a risk that they do become a problem for you.
For instance, I'm in a local Christian community - conservative, evangelical. I'm in Australia, which has a better degree of 'communalism' than places like America. The people I know are not vengeful, and mostly have compassion for the underdogs. That said, a lot of them are bound by the rules of our society - it won't occur to them that those rules can be used for ill and not just good until after the damage is done.
Truly told, it also wouldn't occur to me for the most part. Things like ICE raids, or targeting trans people? But I've had the fortune to be on lots of 'resistance' accounts for the last decade: there are topics that I have learned that I will need to avoid - not for my sake, but for the sake of other people around me. If I am to be an ally - a safe space even - I need to not give up others, even though people may not extend the same generosity to me.
Remember: do unto others as you would have others do unto you.
But also, if you can hold the line on a matter of difference that isn't a threat to you - personally, legally, may I encourage you to do so.
Cultural Influencers
I'm a Christian in a conservative space. I know lots of people who are increasingly uneasy at the waning cultural influence of Christianity in our society. The 'hot topic' issues such as gender and sexuality are things that they are concerned about - the idea that you can't say it's wrong or a sin: that we need that language for people to repent.
I hold a rather broader view of 'sin' - sin is not what we do, it's everything that we are when you define 'sin' as simply "choosing not to follow God's way". That can involve snapping at someone you live with because you had a bad day, and it can involve cheating on your partner. It can involve cursing someone quietly from behind your steering wheel when they cut you off in traffic, and it can involve punching someone out because they cut in front of you in line.
It can also involve simply living your life in an ordinary way without any reference or consideration of what God wants for your life. It's living as though God doesn't exist. Which, let's be honest, all of us do at some point in time during the day.
'Sin' in my books is way bigger and more encompassing than most people's definition of it. But also: it is what it is. I don't feel 'guilt' over it - not the way that most people tend to assign guilt. It's not a feeling of badness or wrongness. I might regret that I'm not more God-focused, but also, I do and don't give God the glory in my every day life.
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