I guess it depends what you mean by persecution for wanting to obey the Bible.. let's see...
1. can a christian employer in a christian organisation refuse to hire a worker on the grounds he's homosexual and it goes against what he believes is taught in the scripture? No.. it's called discrimination
2. Can a Christian stand against euthenasia or abortion because they believe in the sanctity of life and that God alone is the one to whom all life belongs and not be accused of being unfair to the woman who owns her own body, or who would put human suffering (of many degrees according to societies dictates...this can mean someone like Terri in the USA whose only crime is she can't swallow her own food or talk or walk, or like a woman in Australia who decided that she didn't want to live and faked cancer so that she would gain public sympathy for the anti euthenasia lobby), against the sanctity of life.
3. Or of our indigenous Australian believers who want to become Christians but are told by their own people that to become a Christian is to embrace white man's ways and therefore find themselves persecuted for their faith.
In Australia, the laws of the land are turning our country more and more into a totally secular nation. Freedoms that Christians used to enjoy are slowly eroding away. Sure, I'm not yet imprisoned for being a Christian, but I'm sure made to feel a second class citizen for upholding truth in a world which would prefer not to be accountable to it. Is this a picture of the US too? I suspect so.
Truth is, in the end, it's not the monuments that make a nation, it's the truth it upholds and is there any nation on this earth, that truly reflects God in it's practises? Even amongst Muslim nations where the so called Shariah Law is the Law of the land? I'd truly be interested in knowing everyone's thoughts on this....
How does a nation reflect God in it's constitution and it's law? Does any nation?
The implications of this question are enormous.. is it the nation that proudly says the Words of it's Holy Book are it's laws? Is it the nation that declares it's Leader is a follower of a faith or religious belief that is in the majority of a country? Or is it something more profound than that?
umm.. Mr Banks, you are turning me philosophical today hehe!!