Bad/Brutal Does Not Really Translate To Good

Yes, I vaguely remember having a conversation with Sylvia Brooke (MK-Costa Rica) in which she was saying how shocked she was when she came to the United States and heard people at college, a Christian college, using the word 'bad' as if referring to something good, as if being 'bad' were 'good.' Yes, really, I had not really thought about this until Sylvia mentioned it but I do think that I agree with Sylvia that it is not good to use this word 'bad' in this clearly wrong and unbiblical way. In pop culture the word 'bad' is often used in a complimentary way to affirm the evil deeds of hipster drug dealers and other not so nice people who defy the authorities in order to get away with doing whatever they want to do and that is bad, not good, obviously. This slang usage of 'bad' was sometimes heard even in a Christian college. Sylvia referred to some Bible verses that clearly do apply to the situation she is describing. So, yes, I agree with Sylvia on this point. For example:

Romans 14:16: Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil.

Romans 3:5-12: But if our unrighteousness brings out God's righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? Someone might argue, "If my falsehood enhances God's truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?" Why not say--as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say--"Let us do evil that good may result"? Their condemnation is deserved. What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." etc. etc.

So yes, I agree with Sylvia that we should not call the bad good and the good bad. Clearly, there is too much of that going on all over the place, but not only in the United States as Sylvia seems to have forgotten.

Has Sylvia forgotten that down in Latin America the term "brutal," which translates exactly into Spanish with the same spelling as English, is considered sometimes used as a compliment? Perhaps Sylvia forgot about that.

In English the word 'brutal' conjures images of Genghis Khan's murderous warpath all the way from Mongolia to Eurasia.

In Spanish the word 'brutal' has other meanings in addition to cruel savagery. It also may be used as a compliment in the same sense that "wicked" in English is sometimes used as a compliment applicable to persons who have accomplished something extraordinary in a clever and reckless, ruthless way.

So really there is no reason for the Spanish brutals to get so uppity about the English bads when they are just as wicked as anyone else on the planet.

Perhaps Sylvia forgot about that. I probably should have thought to remind her about that but it wasn't really something that I was thinking about very much. Obviously just being at a Christian college does not make anyone a Christian anymore than swimming in a lake makes you a goldfish, and those who are not really born again are just not going to understand and are very susceptible to the traps of pop culture laid before them everywhere in our modern culture. Obviously lots of people in Christian college were not really born again but it is a lot more obvious now, thirty-plus years later, to figure out who they were. Back then it wasn't so clear what they meant.