Why were the Roman officials unhappy with Christianity?

Answer 1

In short, Roman officials (and others) were unhappy with Christianity for 1:reasons that many governments dislike Christianity and 2:reasons unique to the Roman Empire.

1: Many governments fear religious movements because they are worried it will unite a group of people against their power. Often, dictators or repressive states fear and dislike Christianity because it may disagree with their principles and give a large demographic of people cause to resist them.

2: The Romans already disliked the Jews for similar reasons: the Jews refused to take part in Roman culture (sacrifice to idols, eating certain foods, sexual immorality, worship of many gods). The Roman emperors also began to add themselves to the pantheon of Roman gods. They claimed to be gods and desired to be worshiped. For Jews (and Christians) this was blasphemy against God. The Christians felt the Roman emperors were not God's son, but Jesus was. This refusal to line up with Roman customs and to obey the order to worship the Emperor made the Christians unpopular.

In one instance, a Roman emperor wrote that he feared the Christians and arrested them because he was sure they were committing secret crimes but found them only reciting scripture and taking oaths not to break their marriages.

Lastly, the Christians were easy to blame. Nero was reputed to have blamed them for many problems to take pressure off of himself. The Christians were at times forgotten about, but when convenient, emperors like Domitian would start persecuting them again and blaming them for Roman troubles.