Peter - Jew by religion or Christian by lifestyle?
When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? (Galatians 2:14 N.I.V.)
Religion has historically been integrally involved in the fabric of societies. As a matter of practice, religion has typically been a way of teaching and enforcing a society's 'norms.'
It has historically had the force of law in most societies. Even today, in most societies around the world, the laws of that society closely follow the religious norms of the majority.
It is difficult for some Americans to understand that the rigid laws of a conservative Muslim country are no more or less a reflection of the 'majority' of their people than are the laws and philosophies of the United States a reflection of Judaism/Christianity.
It is abundantly hypocritical for Western cultures to 'demand' democracy for a conservative Muslim country and then demand that they have 'Judeo-Christian country' 'rights & freedoms.'
The majority of a conservative Muslim country's citizens are undoubtedly going to wish to live their lives with the freedom of choosing to remain conservative Muslims.
The philosophical battle between the Apostles Peter and Paul centered on this struggle between competing values:
demanding that non-Jewish people of the Roman Empire adopt the lifestyle of Judaism,
and those who believed that the message of Jesus wasn't to spread Judaism but to bring 'life' to people everywhere, within their own culture.
Peter was evidently enjoying the freedom of living like a 'gentile' but still wanting to demand that 'gentiles' everywhere conform to his religious traditions.
The Apostles were wrestling with a problem that is still very evident today - how to be a Christian without having to adopt a required lifestyle demanded by disparate cultures' 'religious' mandates.
If a religion's role is to teach and preserve social norms with eternal threats as the main motivation, how does that mesh with Jesus' teachings?
We are called to be imitators of Christ bringing freedom to those enslaved by their torments; not religious puppets trying to preserve a culture that continues to enslave people - without hope.