(Note: This is a chapter from a new book I’m writing, “How to Respond When The World Hates You.”)

Persecution of Christians comes in many different forms and levels of intensity. I call it degrees. As you read over the definitions I’ve developed below, you may start to see a pattern forming. And that is because Christians aren’t the only ones who have suffered persecution. Indeed, you can insert any number of tyrannized groups into this category—Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, African Americans, Buddhists, Hindus, Armenians, etc.—as millions of innocent people over the centuries have experienced unjustified opposition and horrific oppression at the hands of their wicked adversaries. But it is an incontrovertible fact that Christians are overwhelmingly the most persecuted group in the world today. Indeed, Christians are experiencing the worst persecution today than any time in history.

As you read over this list, please keep in mind that it is neither comprehensive nor definitive. I developed this imperfect scale merely to show the evolution of persecution from its lesser forms to its most egregious acts. If you are a Christian, I have no doubt that you have experienced one or more of these “degrees” of persecution. Imagine this list as an inverted triangle (it’s kind of an upside down version of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs). The less violent types of persecution are at the top of the list because they are experienced more by “everyday” Christians, and those at the bottom of the list are the most extreme because they happen to fewer of us, people we would call “martyrs of the faith.” But beware — the triangle is getting larger at the bottom as time passes.

In the chapters that follow, you will see examples of virtually each of these degrees as they are manifested at home and abroad. This list won’t bring you comfort, however, but it isn’t supposed to. It’s designed to open your eyes, soften your hearts and renew your minds with a new resolve to be more committed than ever to Jesus Christ and the mission of His Eternal Kingdom.

I hope you will take this list seriously and pray about your own life, those of your loved ones and especially our brothers and sisters around the world who are suffering unspeakable pain because they are Ambassadors for Christ. May God give them – and you – grace to bear His Name boldly, courageously and lovingly.

1. IGNORING—This first degree seems rather harmless. People just won’t give Christians the time of day. They act like we aren’t there…like some people treat God. They regard us as a bothersome gnat that will eventually just go away. It’s like having a friendly conversation with the person next to you on an airplane, until they find out you are a Christian. Then the big chill sweeps over and abruptly ends the conversation for the rest of the journey.
2. DISMISSING—This involves a mental decision to assess the worth of a Christian and write them off. They don’t respect us or take us seriously. In short, they don’t value or appreciate our contributions to society, as remarkable as they may have been throughout history. We are regarded as “less than nothing.”
3. AVOIDING—This is when people shift from mentally erasing you from their consciousness to physically doing what they can to not be in the same room with you. They want to be as far away from us as possible.
4. EXCLUDING—This is the phenomenon of not being invited to participate in a party, a club, a committee or anything where a group goes on without you. It’s a “no trespassing” sign for Christians. Keep out.
5. TEASING—This is a when people shift from subtle discrimination to deliberate intimidation. There is an old saying, “there is much truth in jest.” When people tease you for being “a tee totaler,” “a goody two shoes,” “holier than thou,” “a Jesus freak,” or a “religious fanatic,” you can be sure they aren’t just playing with you. They may say they mean no harm, but they know good and well that they are sticking a knife in your heart when they say it. They may think it’s “cute,” but our faith is no joke.
6. MOCKING—This shifts from a “lighthearted josh in good fun” to something more sinister. Mockery is ridiculing you for your beliefs. Mockers aren’t looking to get a laugh; they want to put us down and kick us when we’re down. They view us as fools who deserve the derision of society. Jesus was mocked during his trial when the soldiers made fun of him. They sarcastically bowed to him as a king, asked him as a blindfolded prophet to predict who hit him and challenged him to come down from the cross if he really was the Son of God. Mockery isn’t funny; it’s serious—and sometimes deadly—business.
7. OFFENDING—This is the deliberate act of hurting Christians with mean words. There may be teasing or mockery involved, but people who want to offend go right for the jugular without the need for humor. They want to be mean, hateful, hurtful and get us riled up. People like this are either trying to pick a fight or use poisonous words as weapons of choice to drive us away or trip us up. They believe sticks, stones and words will hurt us.
8. CRITICIZING—This takes offending one step further, as the offender is rendering a judgment on who we are, what we believe, what we say and do or what we don’t say and do. Critics always put themselves above those they criticize, and their job, as they see it, is to condemn us with negative assessments and verbal attacks. Their goal is to make us feel inferior, weak, worthless, and insignificant. Criticizing is verbal bullying. It is not uncommon for some people on the receiving end of constant criticism to take their own lives just to put an end to the pain.
9. SUSPECTING—This is when someone has been mentally processing the attitudes and actions of believers and is on the verge of making up their mind that Christians are not to be trusted and could actually be a threat. They are gathering evidence before rendering judgment. Suspicion is the “deep breath before the plunge,” the “calm before the storm.” It’s the invisible attitude that precedes the visible action of someone seeking to do us harm.
10. JUDGING—This is the action that suspicion gives birth to. It’s when someone or some entity sits in authority over you as if you were beneath them and renders a verdict about your worth or your value system. Some people have no power over us, but there are some who do and can or will use it to do us harm. These are the judges in our lives.
11. CONTROLLING—This is when people with power can dictate what happens to us. They manipulate outcomes more than we can. They are no longer holding negative thoughts or saying negative words; they have moved to initiating negative consequences. They can make unpleasant things happen.
12. SILENCING—This is when the people in power can and will gag Christians… or else. If they don’t like what we believe when we express our heartfelt opinions, they will use the tools at their disposal—or rewrite the rules—to shut us up. They hold a sword of Damocles over our head just waiting for us to make a wrong move.
13. OSTRACIZING—This is the denial of access or privileges you once enjoyed before things got worse. It’s not the same as excluding, as exclusion never lets you “in the club” to begin with. Ostracism, in contrast, is a conscious, deliberate action to cut you out after you’ve already been in. It’s society’s way of behaving like the mother animal who refuses equal treatment to the runt of the litter. In the workforce, this is sometimes disguised as “discipline,” “sensitivity training,” or “behavior modification.” It’s the petty equivalent of putting a dunce’s hat on us and telling us to go sit in the corner until we come out with a happy face (i.e. make up our mind to do things their way).
14. DEMOTING—This is when Christians fail to find favor with various authorities, usually in the workplace or classroom. People in power begin to take us out of positions of influence or authority for fear that we may impose our religious beliefs on others, upsetting the esprit de corps of a team. Companies can use demotions as a form of arm-twisting to make us so uncomfortable that we will quit our jobs so that they don’t have to fire us, pay severance or face a wrongful termination lawsuit.
15. EXPELLING—This is when we are asked to leave an organization because of our beliefs. In America, such phenomenon is supposed to be illegal, but good and godly people are fired, court martialed, laid off and downsized out of their careers all the time. And somehow, the savvy supervisors succeed without scrutiny. With the help of crafty lawyers, they know how to pull the trigger without leaving fingerprints. While they have gamed the system in a way that appears legal to the outside world, it is hardly moral. God knows exactly what they did and why.
16. DISOWNING—This is a form on expelling, but much worse. It happens most often when a family member cuts us off from the rest of our kin, simply because we follow Jesus. Getting kicked out of school or fired might hurt our pride, but being repudiated by our loved ones is unbearably heartbreaking. For some, this is a fate worse than death.
17. FINING—This is when a government or some other self-described authority (i.e. bully) actually fines Christians, sometimes even in return for being spared from death. The best example of this unjust levy is when non-Muslim subjects (called dhimmis) who reside in Muslim lands under Islamic law must pay a tax called jizya or, in extreme cases, be killed. This tax historically has been assessed to Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians. It’s fundamentally extortion.
18. CONFISCATING—This is when an authority—from an illegitimate militant group to a legitimate government—seeks to inflict harm on Christians by taking things away. It is the illicit act of seizing personal property.
19. DESTROYING—This is when an authority, most often a militant group, destroys the personal property of a Christian (like a home, business or car) or a group of Christians (like a church building).
20. IMPRISONING—This is the forcible act of putting Christians behind bars, in chains or under house arrest for simply being a Christian.
21. ENSLAVING—This is making Christians perform duties against their will. It’s happened before. It can happen and is happening again. Women, young girls and boys, are kidnapped and trafficked as sex slaves in foreign lands, and sometimes even in America.
22. WITHHOLDING—This is the denial of food, water, medicines, clothing, blankets and other essential items necessary for survival. It’s a method of torture by slow, gradual death.
23. RAPING—This is the act of performing various sexual acts with the opposite or same sex of all ages against their will.
24. TORTURING—This is the practice of inflicting severe emotional or physical pain on someone as a punishment or to force them to do or say something against their will or beliefs.
25. MURDERING—This is the deliberate, cruel and immoral act of killing an innocent life.