per·se·cu·tion /ˌpɝsɪˈkjuʃən/
 迫害,煩擾
 Per·se·cu·tion n.
 1. The act or practice of persecuting; especially, the infliction of loss, pain, or death for adherence to a particular creed or mode of worship.
    Persecution produces no sincere conviction.   --Paley.
 2. The state or condition of being persecuted.
 3. A carrying on; prosecution. [Obs.]
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 persecution
      n : the act of persecuting (especially on the basis of race or
          religion)
 Persecution
    The first great persecution for religious opinion of which we
    have any record was that which broke out against the worshippers
    of God among the Jews in the days of Ahab, when that king, at
    the instigation of his wife Jezebel, "a woman in whom, with the
    reckless and licentious habits of an Oriental queen, were united
    the fiercest and sternest qualities inherent in the old Semitic
    race", sought in the most relentless manner to extirpate the
    worship of Jehovah and substitute in its place the worship of
    Ashtoreth and Baal. Ahab's example in this respect was followed
    by Manasseh, who "shed innocent blood very much, till he had
    filled Jerusalem from one end to another" (2 Kings 21:16; comp.
    24:4). In all ages, in one form or another, the people of God
    have had to suffer persecution. In its earliest history the
    Christian church passed through many bloody persecutions. Of
    subsequent centuries in our own and in other lands the same sad
    record may be made.
      Christians are forbidden to seek the propagation of the gospel
    by force (Matt. 7:1; Luke 9:54-56; Rom. 14:4; James 4:11, 12).
    The words of Ps. 7:13, "He ordaineth his arrows against the
    persecutors," ought rather to be, as in the Revised Version, "He
    maketh his arrows fiery [shafts]."