Persecution On The Modern Church

I went to a different church today. The pastor said that one of the best ways the Gospel can be spread is through persecution. He didn't go into to many details, at least not that I can recall, but my mind started churning. I came to the conclusion that The Church is under persecution currently, but it's a type of persecution that assails the spiritual aspect of humanity rather than the physical aspect. In other words, people's lives aren't being threatened anymore, at least not in civilized society. Satan has become more cunning than just threatening lives. Now he is threatening life as humanity has known it for most of recorded history.
Just think about it for a minute.
First there is the fairly new issue of "extended adolescence" or "delayed adulthood". Phrases are coming out like "30 is the new 20". Job-hopping and career switching aren't uncommon anymore. This sort of stuff is new to the history of humanity. Some people attribute these trends to increased life-expectancy. Since people expect to live longer, they delay life events (career, marriage, children). So, really, it's because of science (man discovering and manipulating God's creation), that we have these trends. It's not because of something that is innate to the created order.
Humanity is bent on pleasing humanity. So, now, we are discovering that when we seek to please self, instead of the Creator, stuff seems to go awry. Of course, there are the nay-sayers that say "there is no Creator", but the Creator in His eternal wisdom seems to have ordered creation in such a way to where there is no conclusive proof either way. It just comes down to taking Him at His word. It's the ultimate pop quiz "I am" or "I am not". If you give the wrong answer, you fail eternally.
. . . but I digress . . .
Persecution. The topic is persecution.
So, since the Industrial Revolution, man has been discovering all sorts of new and amazing things. We can drive, make toast, see more than 10 feet in the dark, and flush a toilet. Now, there is even talk of making human clones and having sex with robots. It's almost as if science has reached new heights of ridiculousness.
Also, philosophy is taking turns in logic. In 2008 we have the wonder of the pregnant man. The pregnant man was actually born with breasts, a vagina, and a female reproductive system. He was a she who won beauty pageants in Hawaii. She, after a failed relationship, decided to become a man. Even though she was missing some parts (penis, testicles, and sperm just to name a few), the law of the state of Oregon legally defined her as being a man and allowed to "marry" a woman. She is now claiming that he is the world's first pregnant man.
If science and philosophy are not an attack on the modern church, I don't know what is. We are surely under persecution. Only God knows who will pass the test in the end.