Bad Bunny, good gospel: The lessons I’m learning from this Puerto Rican rapper
Bad Bunny’s latest album speaks of his proud Puerto Rican heritage. For pastor Johnny Rivera, it was a reminder that his allegiance is to Christ, and he will always be proud to live under God’s banner
Bad Bunny’s latest album, Debí Tir
Before this album’s release, I had never really listened to Bad Bunny. I knew of him, of course—his music is everywhere. But I also knew that much of his content could be seen as “worldly”, and as a pastor, I wasn’t drawn to his music. However, something about Debí Tirar Más Fotos was different. To be clear, this album also contains songs that I would never endorse as a Christian. That being said, I cannot deny the impact some of these songs had on me. I didn’t just hear beats and lyrics; I felt something deeper when I listened. At times, I even found myself in tears.
This album did something I would never have imagined—it made me think about faith. It prompted reflections on identity, culture, and what it means to carry something bigger than oneself.
More Than Just a Flag
In his song La Mudanza, Bad Bunny declares “ Aquimataron gente p
As a fellow Puerto Rican, we get teased in the U.S. for our affinity for our flag. However, it’s not just about celebrating a homeland—it’s a simultaneous act of gratitude anddefiance: gratitude for the freedom to display it openly today, and defiance in ensuring that this right is never taken away again.
Carrying God’s Presence
As a current graduate pursuing a Master of Arts in Spirituality, as well as a pastor of twenty years, I am amazed by how much more I am learning, specifically about how arts and culture can inform, for good or bad, how we understand God and the Scriptures and, ultimately, how we put the Scriptures into practice.
A favorite hymn of mine is “We Are Soldiers.” The lyrics are, “We are soldiers in the army, and we’ve got to fight; we have to hold up the blood-stained banner; we have to hold it up until we die.” The song conveyed the message that by holding up the banner of Christ (blood- stained banner), we could fight, not as the world does, but by holding up the banner.
Listening to the idea of carrying the Puerto Rican flag whenever you go reminded me of this song. As a Christian, I get to carry a “bloodstained banner” wherever I go. And, like the flag, this is something I carry for two reasons: gratitude and defiance.
I serve God out of gratitude because I was once enslaved—enslaved to sin and my own brokenness as a former atheist. Thankfully, in 1997, Jesus set me free, and now I live my life as an expression of gratitude.
Additionally, the defiance I speak of is one rooted in Jesus’s call to go against the grain of the world. In a culture that promotes selfishness, I choose service. In a world obsessed with power, I choose humility. In a society that encourages division, I choose unity. Each act of love, faithfulness, and selflessness is a form of rebellion against the values of a world that resists God.
The world often views rebellion as rejecting authority, but true spiritual rebellion is about rejecting the authority of sin and choosing the authority of Christ.
Living It Out
This mindset of subversive resistance has shaped my approach to leadership. I love to work with leaders whom others may have given up on. I have trained and appointed leaders of different ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds in my church. Equipping the saints because they are called, qualified, and gifted glorifies God regardless of what kind of public statement it makes. By intentionally investing in those who may be overlooked because of “other” factors, I am rebelling against systemic biases that suggest they are not enough.
Just as carrying the Puerto Rican flag was once an act of rebellion, carrying the Gospel’s “bloodstained banner” in this world is an act of countercultural defiance.
Jesus frequently engaged in subversive resistance by challenging societal, religious, and political norms, offering a transformative vision of God’s kingdom. His conversation with the Samaritan woman (John 4:1-42) defied ethnic and gender boundaries, showing that God’s grace extends beyond social divisions. He healed on the Sabbath (Mark 3:1-6; Luke 13:10-17), prioritizing human need over legalism. When confronted with the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11), he exposed the hypocrisy of her accusers and emphasized mercy over punishment. By touching lepers and the unclean (Mark 1:40-45; Mark 5:25-34; Luke 7:11-17), he defied purity laws and restored the marginalized to community.
Each of these actions subverted worldly systems—not through violence, but through radical love, justice, and the proclamation of God’s kingdom. Yes, He also turned tables in the Temple in righteous protest, but often, He simply lived the rebellion. His acts were often without even a proclamation that he was doing it; he just did it!
What Are You Carrying?
This album prompted me to consider the significance of what we carry. Whether it’s a flag, a legacy, or faith, what we carry communicates to the world who we are. For me, I strive to carry God’s presence in a way that honors both—gratitude for being set free and defiance “against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12).” I plan on holding the blood-stained banner till the day I die.