More often than not, I am a pretty relaxed and laid back person. I don’t really dwell on issues, I rarely hold a grudge, and things that probably should get me worked up just don’t. But lately I’ve been fixated on and can’t stop dwelling on an issue that seems to keep cropping up. Most recently it cropped up with the Duck Dynasty issue.

There are a whole group of Christians who the world never hears from except when they open their mouths to say they’d have done or said something differently. Then you never hear from them again. I almost think they should be called Quisling Christians or some such.

In any event, while most people refer to the Apostle Thomas as “Doubting Thomas,” we need more Thomases. Because Thomas, in an often overlooked portion of the Bible, really wasn’t a doubter. He was undoubted and determined to march with God, even if it meant his death.

In John 11, Lazarus dies. To prove he could fully conquer death and was the risen Lord, Jesus did not go immediately to Mary and Martha, but waited two days. When he finally decided to go, the disciples tried to talk him out of it. “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” they said to him.

But Jesus was undeterred and determined to go to Judea. The Apostle John then tells us,

So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

— John 11:16 (ESV)

Thomas was ready to die with his Lord and for his Lord. He was willing to march straight to his death. He actually assumed they would all be killed, but still he was willing.

There are far too many Christians in America trying to accommodate the world. There are far too many Christians trying to separate themselves from their less eloquent, less polished, less put together Christian brethren.

The Apostles were, at essence, a bunch of unpolished rednecks. A tax collector, a hot head who wanted to call down fire on a Samaritan town, and a group of fishermen. They were not upper income, polished, elites. But they served the Lord and preached on after him meeting, in some cases, gruesome deaths. These were not cowards.

And I think that’s exactly what these Quisling Christians amount to. They are cowards. It is not that they would or could say or do anything differently. It is that they prefer no attention or spotlight at all and they resent being pulled into the spotlight for others. Christians are supposed to be the salt and the light of the world. They are to engage in the public square.

The Christian who cannot be bothered to raise his head and voice except to criticize other Christians engaging, should instead be bowing his head and praying for those willing to put themselves out on the ramparts to advance the Kingdom. Thomas was ready to march with with Jesus straight to his death. Ultimately, though much later, he did.

By the sword, by crucifixion, by fire, by rock, by awful means and ways the Apostles were martyred. We should all be prepared to die for Christ that we might live. I fear there may be some Christians who’d rather coast, only engaging the world to make sure the World spares them the shame of the cross. They will not be spared and one day they will be made to care.