Are we persecuted as Christians?

In my blogger reader I came across this blog post entitled, "Blessed are the Persecuted" http://acroamaticus.blogspot.com/ It is in reference to a news article about Christians in the UK and the persecution they are facing. I was wondering are we as Christians persecuted? I was going to ask are we persecuted here in the US, then realized that some of you may be living/or have lived elsewhere in the world. I know that some areas are totally against Christianity. But what about the 'free' countries? Are we as Christians really persecuted? What are your experiences, feelings, knowledge about this topic?