What is the source of hatred often perceived by Christians in western society? Not everyone hates Christians, but it seems that most Christians have felt hated at some time by someone because of their faith.

Is there a specific reason behind the hatred I've seen towards Christians as a group? Is the reason different among former Christians than with those who never held the faith?
I don't think that Christians face any more bigotry than any other group.  As TRiG pointed out in his answer, there are many American Christians who have chosen to interpret their loss of special privilege in our culture to be "hatred against Christians", when in reality it results not from hatred, but from a desire for equality.

However, there are those who fear Christians, and fear is easy to mistake for hatred. There was a time when I just didn't get the fear that some people showed toward Christians.  Then the military stationed my family in the Bible Belt...


A Christian neighbor found out that my family is not Christian.  She called a local Christian preacher, who tried to break into my house with the stated goal of beating me until I miscarried (I was 6.5 months pregnant).  The (apparently Christian) police refused to come to my aid.
My (Jewish) friend's child innocently and accidentally outed himself to his Christian first grade classmates; they beat him so badly he spent three days in intensive care.
My Catholic mother was harassed and kicked out of a quilt shop for not being the "right" kind of Christian.
I spent time with a Red Cross worker who had come from trying to restore the economies in third-world communities where Christian missionaries had disrupted the food supply, local medical care, and more in their attempts to convert the locals.
I watched Christian babies in the NICU denied the breast milk that could have bolstered their immune systems because the local Christian sects taught that breastfeeding was a sin.
I saw a Christian chaplain deny needed services to people who put their lives on the line for our country, because he did not believe that non-Christians were deserving of his time.


Because much of my extended family is Christian, I have exposure to Christians who aren't violent, destructive, sex offenders, or trying to force their religion on others through economic and/or political coercion.  The thing is, most non-Christians only run into Christians when they are doing these things, so they believe that such behavior is emblematic of mainstream Christianity.  To my knowledge, of these practices only missionary work is mainstream -- and the destruction caused is usually not intentional, but the result of ignorance about social and economic systems they are affecting.

Unfortunately, most Christians seem to think that if they quietly ignore these problems, they will go away.  However, until the sane Christians publicly step in when the fringe gets out of control, the fringe will continue to be all that non-Christians see, and they'll have defined Christianity for most outsiders.