Fascination with the Big Bad

Fascination with the Big Bad

I hear comedians making humor out of what I am about to write about. I hear guys complain about it. I see it depicted on T.V. and in movies. Permeating the landscape of my work is the love of things bad; that willing to break rules and appear dark. Though I've always found it strange, and have never been particularly attracted to the bad. Bad men have never been my hero, even peripherally. Bad girls that I have been attracted to had my attention simply because they were girls.

A good friend I asked about this phenomenon gave me the most logical, and yet elusive answer on the front of why girls like 'bad boys'. His answer was as follows, a girl will like a bad boy because she feels that if he can be bad then she'd feel a little more free to be bad. This, I would consider, is a revolutionary idea and yet orthodox in its application.

I get the bad boy, I really do. To be honest, I little as little of him as I do the scum that lays in the ring of a toilet. I've chosen to look into the motives of rapists and murders and thieves. There resides evil, darkness, and a mind void of any precept of right other than what is advantageous to self. After reading books about atrocities like the holocaust, and listening to interviews on the same with survivors. After reading about the profilers' observations on rapists and murders I have seen the evil in the heart of men. "Bad boys" play at what the Hitler's, Bundy's, and various self-fulfilling bastards of the world take serious. A heart with no conviction as to what is right and wrong is worthless. I'd admire Hitler more for going through with his convictions than your typical bad boy.

The apostle Paul said of love, " Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing,
but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends." Yet, is this not the very opposite definition of someone who plays at being bad?

I say, the person who plays at being bad is not patient and is not kind. They are envious at every turn, always are they boasting in arrogance. They are rude and insist on their own way. Their ire is easily raised and are almost for certain resentful of others who bare them no free gifts of pride for flesh. For certain they find great humor and warmth from wrong doing. They are angry at the voice of truth. They endure only what they must, quick to speak any iniquity done to them, yet quick to accuse those who would accuse them of wrong. They believe only what they will benefit from. Their affection stretches as far as their own satisfaction.

I am jealous. I wish the best for those I love. Those who know me would attest to the fact that I would gladly give my life that they may have a better life. I am jealous in that when I see those I love suffering the verdict of justice upon their lives I would take that upon myself. I am jealous in that when I see them reaping what they have reaped, I'd gladly exchange whatever good fruit has come of my life for the least of theirs. Yet, all I have is a finger and a tongue that can point the way to the Way. The Light and the Life has perfection and whole completion. Sometimes I feel like I'm an idiot with a broken leg standing in front of a speeding train trying to get it to reverse course. Of course the doubt of "Who am I?" creeps in and my lips quiver because I know I am not worthy to speak out to the world; certainly I am not worthy to save it.


So all I have is the gospel. All I have is my Lord who has saved me out of darkness. I am not strong enough to save anyone. I am not strong enough to save myself. I do know who is strong enough. I know who is willing. I know who is calling and working towards the salvation of those whose heart is willing, through faith engrafted by the Father. I know I am called a son and an ambassador. This is all I have.

Part Two

Tonight I watched 310 to Yuma with my Pop. Well, he watched about fifteen minutes of it until he started snoring. The movie is one of my favorites. I wrote and posted part one to this blog this morning (technically yesterday morning, it is just after midnight.) The whole experience really did seem to cement my perspective on this subject of the bad boy.

In the movie Ben Wade, the main villain, is truly bad. He acts completely on self interest. He kills for his own pleasure. He is beholden to no law other than that of his own desires for power (by the barrel of a gun) and pleasure (acquired with money acquired by the barrel of a gun.) He is the logical outworking of the bad boy. He is consistent with his view of the world.

Dan Evans, the hero of the story, doesn't seem to be much more than very plain. He has a wife and two boys. He is held to what is best for his family, even if that does sometimes make him look bad in the eyes of others, including his own boys. He too is consistent with his view of the world.

Upon entering town Ben Wade quickly sweet talks (in a very manly way) the bar maid. It is not long before he is drawing a picture of her naked back. She saw what he was when he entered with his men. She was, in fact, attracted to him because of who is was. Because of what he was.

Later on in the movie Ben comes in contact with Dan's wife. Discussing Ben with Dan she says, "He's not what I expected." That was a very telling moment. Beauty and goodness, we assume, come packaged in what our minds often tag them as being in. It is the moment we, as children of God, allow standards other than the word of our Lord to guide our perspective, that our sight for what is good, right, just, and lovely becomes skewed by our fleshly preferences and interpretations. Also, a danger is seeing what one man of God has as a way of expressing godliness and assuming that if another does not look exactly like that they could not possibly be godly. We are not to be unequally joked together with unbelievers. The context of this verse is intimacy or marriage; the two assumed as one. Do not assume that because one says God this, or this is only right, that said person has a relationship with Christ.

Of course we can never be the judge of another's salvation. Such is the place of God, and God alone. If the other person is not living according to God's principles, and being guided by His Spirit, then becoming yoked is not a good idea. Of course no one is perfect. Perfection is not the case. A certain level of spiritual maturity should be a precursor to any relationship, of course. True love is not blind to the iniquity of another. True love rightly sees the person and loves them regardless. But the simple act of loving another does not mean a binding (marriage) should take place. Love is not enough, not for a life surrendered to the will of our Savior. There are countless struggles to be had in any relationship. The mutual desire for the spiritual health of one another is only natural of a child of God. The fruit of the Spirit in Paul's epistle to the Galatians. His list of things to ponder in the letter to those at Philippi. The list of abominations in the Proverbs of Solomon. There are any number of guideposts that should guide any relationship that is intended to glorify God, and not just selfish desire for companionship or sensual connection.

Ben was a more compelling character at the beginning. In the end, all that he had was shown to be temporary and vanity. The character of Dan was shown to be based on good that transcends generations and chosen paths in life. That is the fate of those who choose evil: vanity, death, destruction, and to be forgotten. Those who play at it, and those who find such people preferable, should have no place in either heaven nor in hell. They deserve neither.

Thank God for grace.