Hugh Hefner, Helmsman of the Sexual Revolution, Dies at 91

“I urge one and all to live this life as if there is no reward in the afterlife...”

Hugh Hefner attends the Annual Halloween Bash at the Playboy Mansion on October 25, 2014 in Los Angeles, California.
Hugh Hefner attends the Annual Halloween Bash at the Playboy Mansion on October 25, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (photo: Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Playboy)

Hugh Hefner, the founder of Playboy magazine, died Wednesday.

When I first heard the news, I immediately began praying for his soul. 

The empire he created aimed to break down what he called “puritanical” views of sex. The promotion of commitment-free relationships, contraception and cohabitation are natural consequences of a view of women as temporary disposable toys. Abortion skyrocketed, along with divorce, eating disorders and children left behind in the wreckage. Hefner only boasted about his media “accomplishments,” the primary one being the mainstreaming of the view that it's perfectly acceptable for men to consume images of women for fun.

In 1992, The New York Times asked what he was proudest of. Hefner responded: “That I changed attitudes toward sex. That nice people can live together now. That I decontaminated the notion of premarital sex. That gives me great satisfaction.”

When he turned 85, he cheerfully observed, “You're as young as the girl you feel.”

In 1989, he married, and for a while became a family man with two young sons before the couple separated in 1998. After that divorce, he married a 24-year-old. He once boasted that he'd slept with over 1,000 women. Sadly, he didn't seem to see any connection between that repulsive statistic and his late-in-life statement, “I never really found my soulmate.”

We'll all face our judgement before the face of God, whether we “believed” in Him or not. Hefner professed agnosticism: “It’s perfectly clear to me that religion is a myth. It’s something we have invented to explain the inexplicable… What does it all mean… if it has any meaning at all? But how can it all exist if it doesn’t have some kind of meaning? I think anyone who suggests that they have the answer is motivated by the need to invent answers, because we have no such answers.”

And regarding eternal life, he said, “An afterlife would be a really good deal. Yeah, I would vote in favor of that. But in the meantime, I urge one and all to live this life as if there is no reward in the afterlife and to do it in a moral way that leaves this world a little better place than you found it.”

By any measure, the world is not a better place than before the onslaught of pornography.

On a positive note on the porn front, there's now an online community dedicated to abstaining from porn and related behavior. Those who've struggled with pornography and hated the devastation of their lives are speaking out and promoting virtue. Check out www.FightTheNewDrug.org.

Let's pray for Hugh Hefner's soul and the souls of all those misguided by the lies of pornography.