By Mark Ellis —
He dressed up porn and attempted to make it respectable, flaunted a hedonistic, licentious lifestyle, exploited and objectified women, and ensnared many men in sexual addiction.
Playboy founder Hugh Hefner passed to his eternal reward September 27th. He was 91.
Hefner was at the leading edge of the sexual revolution that swept through America and the world in the Sixties and Seventies, which upended Christian values and skewered societal norms.
Some Christians will be quick to say they know Hefner’s eternal destiny. If the immortal Dante’s depiction of hell is correct, Hefner may be in the infamous “second ring” of the Inferno – reserved for those overcome by lust.
Dante envisioned a place where the “bright, voluptuous sin” displayed in Hefner’s magazines and personified by his playboy lifestyle transmutes into “a howling darkness of helpless discomfort.”
In this circle, Dante found Semiramis, Dido, Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Paris, Achilles, Tristan, and others overwhelmed by sexual love. Did Hugh Hefner join their ranks yesterday?
I saw my first Playboy magazine at a friend’s house in 1965. I was only 10-years-old and unprepared for the sudden ignition of sexual feelings, like rocket fuel injected into a booster too soon – years before it was ready for lift-off.
This led to a life-long battle against the seductive tentacles unleashed by Hefner’s revolution, now readily available in every home through Internet access at the click of a mouse.
My misery and the misery of countless others resulting from Hefner’s ignoble life leads me to a place of grim satisfaction as I contemplate the fact that God’s justice will finally be executed perfectly in Hefner’s soul.
But what if the mansion, the grotto, the women, the parties, and his silk PJ’s were all a carefully crafted façade meant to hide his inner longing for real peace?
Anyone who has indulged themselves with pornography knows it satisfies for only a fleeting moment. Afterward, the unmet longings of the soul emerge and there can be little doubt that Hefner wrestled with this angst.
Could the one who did so much to dismantle the influence of Christianity have actually explored its timeless truths toward the end of his life?
According to one of the caretakers of the infamous Playboy mansion, who happens to be a Christian, Hefner had The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren in his bedroom in 2008 – and it was open!
“I wasn’t shocked that Hugh Hefner was reading that book (because) porn leaves you on empty,” notes Craig Gross, the founder of XXX Church, a ministry that helps people break free from porn addiction.
Gross toured the mansion on April 10, 2008 and met the unnamed caretaker who felt he had an “undercover ministry” there, bringing light into the darkness. “He was actually one of only a few that were allowed in Hefner’s bedroom,” he notes.
Since porn leaves most men feeling empty, “why wouldn’t the guy creating it feel the same exact way?” Gross asks.
On his tour of Hefner’s mansion, Gross also discovered that Hefner’s ex-wife, Kimberly Conrad, and their two sons, lived next door and had ready access to the property through an unlocked gate.
“I know he’s not your typical family man,” Gross says. “But over the years, I’ve seen we never know the full story.”
Ironically, Hefner was also one of the biggest donors to Children of the Night, a nonprofit organization helping children who are sexually exploited through prostitution and pornography.
“We don’t know if he is saved,” Gross says. “Only him and the Lord know for sure.”
“Quite possibly there was something here that a lot of people missed.”
To learn more about XXX Church and their ministry helping people break free from pornography addiction, go here
Thank you for writing this. I listened over the phone to my mother who is in her 60s talk about how Hefner is an icon. How she liked playboy and it was classy. I am a woman of faith, in my 30s, and her talk takes a toll on my heart. I would never take off my clothes for fame, fortune, or publicity.
I told her there is nothing classy what young boys do looking at the photos! That how can you say Bill Cosby is awful but somehow Hefner is a man to be envied?
Thank God I know my father in Heaven who calls me to be pure and not a woman to stumble our brothers. My heart goes out to all who need God right now.
I would hold out more hope for Hefner if he had been reading a book that actually presented the Gospel. You know, something like maybe the BIBLE!
When I learned of Mr. Hefner’s death, I cringed on the inside at the tragedy it implied. Yet, we don’t know what was in his mind at the last instance when he passed from this life. I cling to the hope that (at least) just before he left, he repented and called on The Name of The Lord to be saved. This article has strengthened that hope.
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