Thursday, February 5, 2026

SojoMail - The good news of Bad Bunny

By Betsy Shirley
Editor in Chief, Sojourners

Avocadoes are on sale and those He Gets Us ads are back, which can only mean one thing: The Super Bowl is this weekend.

This year, conservative corners of the internet are upset that Bad Bunny is performing at halftime. Instead of watching the Puerto Rican reggaeton star (and outspoken Trump critic), the conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA is promoting an alternate show starring Kid Rock and focused on so-called more American values of “faith, freedom, and family.” Never mind that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and, by all measures, one of the most Christian jurisdictions of the U.S.—irony that isn’t lost in Jenna Barnett’s humorous take on the uproar.

For another good take on Bad Bunny, I suggest Sojourners columnist José Humphreys III, who considers God’s movement through spaces on the margins, including the barrio. And though Humphreys engages topics Turning Point USA fans love—faith, national identity, and freedom—I doubt they’d love his conclusion.

Elsewhere, ecstatic Shaker utopias come to theaters while violent dystopias continue to play out on city streets crowded with federal uniforms. We're trying to parse what’s unique about the injustice we face today and what we can learn from other Christians’ social justice struggles. Through it all, “Our hope for a world of justice remains,” writes Vincent Lloyd, “and we must figure out how to act on that hope in our changing world.”

P.S.—Don’t know what Super Bowl ads I'm talking about? Josiah R. Daniels wrote What ‘He Gets Us’ Ads Get Wrong About Jesus back in 2023.

This Nation’s Violence Is No Longer Private (by Vincent Lloyd)

Once confined to prisons and wars, our worst human instincts are no longer hidden—they’re paraded on city streets.

Read the full article

Liturgical Press / Order of Saint Benedict Slot 1

Our Latest Stories

From the Magazine: Bad Bunny's Holy Halftime (by José Humphreys III)

Why it’s fitting that Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl show takes place during the Christian season of Epiphany.

From the Magazine: Larry the Cucumber Should Headline TPUSA’s Halftime Show (by Jenna Barnett)

And other really good, really plausible ways this event can live into the biblical call to social justice.

Read This Before You Compare What's Happening in the US to Nazi Germany (by Josiah R. Daniels)

Hanna Reichel wants us to draw from a wider pool of Christian resistance movements as we resist authoritarianism.

A Forgotten Utopia Comes to Life in ‘The Testament of Ann Lee’ (by Jenna Barnett)

Through an artfully choreographed movie musical, director Mona Fastvold was determined to remember the ecstatic Shaker “who mothered the world.”

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