In the midst of all the “will they or won’t they, is it today, tomorrow or next month” examination of the execution of Bali bombers Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Mukhlas, another timebomb ticks.

The death watch in Australia, given that so many of our holiday makers died on Legian Street in 2002, is perhaps understandable.

I also know people who survived the blast, but who can’t escape the horror of the flame-consumed bodies around them.

One mate, who was in the middle of Paddy’s Bar when one of the bombs went off, deconstructed mentally over the phone in a three-hour conversation with me shortly afterwards and has still not been put back together.

There is real doubt he ever will be.

Some of my Kuta mates lost friends and family members and others were called in to retrieve bodies; a process that given their beliefs was terrifying and has depleted them .

But what is lacking in the Australian media’s dissection of how the bombers will be killed, what will happen to their bodies, who will shoot them and how that process will be played out, is any critical analysis of the death penalty itself.

Because it would seem to me paradoxical that in a Christian nation so many of us purport to belong to, there has been so little protest from Christians about what is now unfolding.

It is true that we have no control over the Indonesian judicial process, and nor should we.

However I would have thought that this tragedy presented a wonderful opportunity for Christians to show the depth of their faith.

Doesn’t God forgive? Isn’t He the final arbiter? Don’t Christians learn in the faith’s basic tenets that thou shalt not kill?

If anything should unite the various interpretations that challenge to be the real Christian faith, surely this opportunity to show what sets the religion apart should be it.

In the fractious world of competing “Christian” dogma for some, life is precious from conception. For others, life support should be maintained at all cost.

We get the debate where man determines that some, because of their sexuality, should be denied access to God’s love and that women should be excluded from the pulpit.

But at this moment where Christians’ capacity to forgive - as their God has instructed through the lesson of his own son’s execution at the cross – is being so sorely tested we hear little if nothing from any section of the church arguing for these men’s lives to be spared.

What a wonderful message could have been sent to the extremist muslim minority, what a wonderfully unifying and strengthening voice would a message of forgiveness give to that vast majority of Muslims who just live for peace and to raise happy, healthy families.

It would seem that our unwillingness to practice what we preach has exposed us... found us wanting.

That should give pause for reflection.

That it won’t presents a challenge for all Christians and has not been missed by the hyenas who form the cheer squad for the three murderers.

Lulu Jamaludin, the brother of one of the ring leaders Imam Samudra, is already exploiting our weakness in faith and preparing the ground for our further humiliation.

“The Bali Nine should be the ones to be executed first, don’t let them free, it’s a discrimination,’’ Jamaludin said from Cilacap near the south coast central Java jail.

“The Bali bombers’ actions killed 202, but the Bali Nine killed one generation.’’

What room does our silence and lack of forgiveness leave us to argue for those young fools still on death row to be spared?

Christianity requires more of us than the choice and interpretation of the parables that best suit our prejudices. Until we learn that, regardless of the bluster of our guns and armies in Iraq and Afghanistan, we will remain powerless against those who understand that fundamental flaw.