I’ve seen real institutional persecution of Christian brethren in the third world.
Trust me when I tell you that as Americans WE ARE NOT READY TO ENDURE WHAT MOST OF OUR BRETHREN SUFFER.
That was a painful lesson, I, myself head to learn about MY OWN FAITH.
We’ve all been infected with the Health/Wealth Osteenification of Christianity in this country.
When you are sick, miserable and without the comforts we take for granted, such as water, electricity, A/C and are constantly at risk of being beaten, cheated, harassed and those you love beaten and even killed - much of what we assume about our faith and Jesus saving us out of every trial is just a mirage of our own culture of prosperity that we grafted onto Christ.
Brethren in the Third world will enter the Kingdom before we will.
These are the people who are capable of the worst persecution and damage, because they know our habits, deeply-held beliefs, and weaknesses. Their loyalty is to the beast system, because the beast is their god.
I was reading some comments the other day on a Yahoo article about the cop who killed his wife, kids, and MIL, and then himself. This was a LEO who had drugged, raped, and filmed his assault on his wife, and had even shown it around. Many of the comments were critical about how the wife confronted her psycho criminal husband, because it obviously enraged and set off the psycho.
Not blaming the victim(s) for the acts of a crazed lunatic, but they were pointing that there were wiser ways to handle the situation.
There were many personal anecdotes from those who left without tipping off the abuser, or left quietly when the lunatic was away from home. Some described taking months to plan out their escape, and made sure to keep it to themselves. Some were threatened and persecuted, but ultimately they got out alive with their kids.
People need to consider how much their beast-loving associates know about them, how much access they have to their lives and kids (and fix that!), and what these nuts could do if "dissed" or "crossed", because things *will* go south. Bad enough to have some anonymous goverment goons after us, but why just hand over the keys to people we already know are in agreement with the dark side?