{"id":50416,"date":"2000-09-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2000-09-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/degrees-of-persecution\/"},"modified":"2000-09-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2000-09-05T00:00:00","slug":"degrees-of-persecution","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/degrees-of-persecution\/","title":{"rendered":"Degrees of Persecution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a recent article on the suffering church, <em class=\"citation\">FaithWorks<\/em> listed the degrees of persecution one could face for practice of religious faith:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>1. Disapproval <br>\n2. Ridicule <br>\n3. Pressure to conform <br>\n4. Loss of educational opportunities <br>\n5. Economic sanctions <br>\n6. Shunning <br>\n7. Alienation from community <br>\n8. Loss of employment <br>\n9. Loss of property <br>\n10. Physical abuse <br>\n11. Mob violence <br>\n12. Harassment by officials <br>\n13. Kidnapping <br>\n14. Forced labor <br>\n15. Imprisonment <br>\n16. Physical torture <br>\n17. Murder or execution<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3511,4059,4628,4629,5103,5191],"tax_ctp_topics":[378,388],"class_list":["post-50416","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-body-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-global-church","tax_ctp_tags-persecution","tax_ctp_tags-perseverance","tax_ctp_tags-suffering","tax_ctp_tags-trial"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Degrees of Persecution - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/degrees-of-persecution\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Degrees of Persecution - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a recent article on the suffering church, FaithWorks listed the degrees of persecution one could face for practice of religious faith: 1. 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