What’s So Bad About Bad Bunny?

The NFL, not generally known for family friendly entertainment during the half-time of the Super Bowl, gave well over 100 million viewers the opportunity to see and hear somebunny named Bad Bunny.

You may feel somewhat relieved to know Bad Bunny has a different birth name - Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio. He was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. He started singing at a young age and came up with a hit song in 2016. Today he has the additional moniker as the “King of Latin Trap.” By all accounts Bad Bunny is a Latin-American rapper.

Apparently mega-star credentials and the offer of many carrot$ were enough to get Bad Bunny hired to perform at the Big Game featuring the Boston Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. This turned out to be a controversial hire though, which makes you question sometimes about what goes on in the boardrooms of business.

What was Bud Light thinking when they tried to bury a brand name buy expecting good ol’ boys to drink woke suds? The same bewilderment can be applied to executives at Cracker Barrel where the clientele are overwhelmingly gray heads and white heads. As one myself, I notice it every time I go back to the Barrel for the breakfast steak and eggs with a side of hash browns.

The NFL drafting Bad Bunny for the Super Bowl left many people feeling like Bugs Bunny wanting an answer to his question, “What’s up Doc?”

Well, we have to recognize that the NFL is a business. And that business is making their carbon footprint global. So we can arm wrestle whether promoting American culture or another culture is the way to go. But it’s the sub-culture that Bad Bunny represents and promotes that should be a concern for Christians.

In the classic tale of Alice in Wonderland, Alice is sitting with her sister as they read a book. Alice gets bored and distracted. Suddenly a White rabbit with pink eyes comes over by her.  It is the White Rabbit who clamors, “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!” (You find out ‘late for what’ in chapter 2. I won’t spoil it for you).

 

Then White Rabbit pulls out a watch from a waist coat to check the time. Now Alice has quickly gone from distraction to full, inquisitive attention. White Rabbit took off and ran right down a rabbit hole. Alice followed. Lewis Carroll, the author, describes what happened next, “In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.

 

The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.

 

Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything;…”

Chapter I: Down the Rabbit-Hole from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865, public domain).

 

If you watched the half-time show, you know what you saw. Among other things it was crudely sexual. So, you know what you saw, but did you know what you heard? The words were sung in Spanish. Perhaps you might want to see the translation of the lyrics, though I will warn you, it would not be beneficial for you to go to far down that rabbit hole – it’s dark.

Yes, I am all about free speech and I know I can always turn it off and not support it etc. etc. etc. But as Christians there is more to it. In Paul’s letter to the Romans 12:1-2 he tells us what our response should be to all that God has done for us as outlined in Romans chapter 11 (which, by the way, is very beneficial to read). Paul wrote, ¹“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. ² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

As Christians, we are not to be formed by this world and its folly. Rather, we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. This means we desire what the Holy Spirit of God desires and we live by that desire. If we become distracted and then suddenly chase after the things of this world, we risk being conformed to it. Ever wonder why some kids know the Easter Bunny, but not the Resurrected Christ?  Too much conformity!

In the 1988 film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, it was Jessica Rabbit who tried excuse her life with the line “I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way.”  Perhaps the same can be said for Bad Bunnny. Yet he’s not righteous. I have that in common with B.B. None of us are righteous: Romans 3:10 “as it is written, There is none righteous, not even one.”

And still there is Good News: Romans 3:21-22 ²¹ But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, ²² even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; …”

Translation – anybunny can be made right with God through Jesus Christ. Pray that for Benito.