You keep using that word...

... I do not think it means what you think it means...

per·se·cu·tion

ˌpərsəˈkyo͞oSHən/

noun

noun: persecution; plural noun: persecutions

hostility and ill-treatment, especially because of race or political or religious beliefs.

"her family fled religious persecution"

synonyms:oppression, victimization, maltreatment,ill-treatment, mistreatment, abuse, ill-usage, discrimination, tyranny; More

persistent annoyance or harassment.

"his persecution at the hands of other students"

So, what do you think it means... It gets tossed around a lot nowadays.

I hear people who have no idea what it means to wake up and be afraid say that they are persecuted... And that irritates me.  People in other countries are fleeing for their lives because they believe a certain way. They are persecuted.

We are not persecuted as Christians because same sex couples want to marry, we are not persecuted because women want to have access to all types of birth control. We are, in general, in our small corner of the world, NOT persecuted at all.

What we are makes me just as sad. We are judgmental, we are hypocrites, we are blind to the needy and we are not full of love as we proclaim to be.

When it suites us we say, "let he who has no sin cast the first stone," and then we throw a boulder at the next person passing by.

I'm not by any means saying I'm better... I want to be, maybe someday... I want to try  everyday, to be what I'm supposed to be.

I think that I'm supposed to be love, I'm supposed to use the brain that God gave me to figure out this world. To leave it just a bit better than when I came.

*we is used as a generalization to the group that is viewed as "Christian"