I was encouraged to see this post from AKMA this morning.  Amidst all the “whooping it up” being celebrated by the media (insert shot of the jubilant crowd outside the White House for the 999th time),  I was glad to see on my Twitter stream this morning a notice from  my RSS-to-Twitter feed that there was a post from AKMA entitled "Justice, Vengeance, Terror, Execution".  Earlier,  I had RT’d a tweet from @thunderjones :

Watching America celebrate a killing during the Easter season is reminder that it is just a nation. Jesus is Reconciliation not Vengeance.

One would have hoped there would be a bit more of this,  especially in my stream where I follow many church people.  I suppose it’s not really been a long time since this happened,  and many people would have been turning in for the night,  and it is early yet this morning.  And well,  I myself haven’t gotten around to it,  so I can include myself amongst those too slow to respond with some of the admonitions to Christians about “joining in” on the rites expected of all good patriotic soldiers. 

AKMA summed it up quite directly and convincingly:

even the most firmly convinced just-war Christian has no business expressing anything other than penitent relief at this turn of events. The litany of biblical texts and theological principles that speak against revenge, warfare, and unilateralism should not need repeating, but the atmosphere of exceptionalism and self-justification that suffuses the aftermath of the NYC terror attacks probably requires that belligerent avengers revisit some pertinent texts.

Akma » Justice, Vengeance, Terror, Execution

Chris Baker (@sandalstraps)  tweeted this in the past few minutes:

Bonhoeffer justified trying to kill Hitler as a necessary evil, not a good.

Here’s another Ifound as I scroll down through the past hour of tweets in my stream,  Charlie Lyons-Pardue (@CharlieLP)

Really disappointed in the responses of many Christian leaders to Bin Laden’s death. American Civil religion is lifeless and hollow!

Yes, it is. 

The disturbing thing here is that very few church bodies in the U.S. will have the courage or the conviction to say these things.  What’s “blasphemy” to American nationalism is often considered as such by churches,  which itself is idolatry.

Update:  We’re getting some more of these in as people awaken and start reflecting.  Saw this from my old friend @TonyCampolo :

Whose Death Does God Cheer? Osama bin Laden’s? Challenging and Awakening Article by @jimmyspencerjr of @withoutagendahttp://bit.ly/j3lJEQ