Fallout Lore!!, just kidding. The US became very patriotic but was also constantly worried about the threat of total atomic annihilation. This caused many somewhat wealthy people to build actual fallout shelters in their backyards, especially during the fifties and sixties. Other than people almost constantly worrying about the cold war going hot, I can't think of much more going on at least in the US
Romans were tolerant of other religions as long as their followers were respectful of the Roman religion
He was a heretic according to the Church which was the ultimate law behind all questions regarding the earth. Although his teachings were accurate, they went against the Church so naturally they were heresy since anything that was against the Church teachings was heresy. Of course, nowadays we wouldn't label him as a heretic, but at the time when he did it he was indeed spreading heresy, even though he was speaking the truth.
I think that the best answer is that they ended up living in areas distinguished by poverty and lack of social mobility, that is lack of the opportunities to improve one's social and economic situation.
