Romans did not throw Christians to the lions — they threw Jews to the lions

I’m sorry, but you need to brush up on your history a bit.

Romans were throwing Christians to the lions (and otherwise persecuting them) precisely because they claimed not to be Jews and refused to perform any of the civic ceremonies to propitiate the gods.

Look at the Roman worldview: the gods were out there. they were easily annoyed, and the only thing keeping them from bringing down a plague or other ‘natural’ disaster was keeping them propitiated.

The Jews got a pass, because they had an ancient religion, and the Romans revered anything ancient. The new Jews following Jesus, said they were ‘not Jews’. Not being Jews, meant they didn’t get that ancient-religion pass, and were expected to participate in those ceremonies. The Romans could care less if they believed or not — they just had to perform the actions — to keep bad things from happening. The ‘Christians’ refused to do this, and so were persecuted — particularly when something, like a plague or earthquake, happened as they were the ones who had pissed off the gods.

The only parallel I can think of might be how you feel about someone without a mask coughing or sneezing nearby.

Were the Jews in Palestine treated poorly? Yep. They were a rebellious people under Roman occupation, and the Romans were pretty harsh. Were they treated harshly just because they were Jewish? It doesn’t seem so.

BTW, I was not raised in any religion and don’t consider myself a ‘Christian’, so to the extent you are addressing this to people who call themselves ‘Christian’, you are not talking to me — but you seem to have gotten this bit wrong.