Saint Hugh Hefner?

Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? --Ezekiel 18:23 (ESV)

Hugh Hefner, the high priest of the sexual revolution and the founder of Playboy magazine, is dead at age 91.

Reactions are varied. I can honestly say that I have not seen or heard any Christian come right out and openly gloat about Hef entering eternity, but there is no shortage of smug speculation in Christian circles concerning his eternal fate. Not surprisingly- and not without justification- atheists and the anti-religious take this of further evidence of the self-righteousness, judgementalism, and lack of compassion which supposedly characterize Christians and therefore Christianity. Once again, we seem literally hell-bent on confirming the world's impression that the Faith, and by extension Jesus, have an agenda one hundred eighty degrees the opposite of what it really is.

Few people in the history of the Western world have done the damage Hef did. He was a major influence in society's evolution from seeing sexual intimacy as a sacred act of love which by its very nature always has the potential of bringing a new life into the world to seeing it as a form of recreation to be engaged in by dating couples who may be intimate at no deeper level and may even have just met. Playboy's objectification of women played a large role in our coming to see the opposite sex as objects for our selfish gratification rather than of tender, loving, and unique intimacy. The legalization of abortion, no less than our current acceptance of what in any other age would have been considered promiscuity as  cultural norm, is the inevitable consequence of the separation of sex from commitment and the viewing of other human beings as objects whose significance is chiefly found in their relationship to the self. An institution which in Western culture has always been about childbearing and child-rearing has been transformed into one in which people who are incapable of bearing children in principle, and not as an accident of personal circumstance, and whose pattern of commitment to a partner is far less impressive even than that of other married couples can enter into because the link between human sexuality and commitment has been all but destroyed.

There were other things, too, which have sent the American family and culture on the road to ruin. For one thing, human beings were not designed to be celibate at the ages people are remaining single at these days. But the sexual revolution, of which Hugh Hefner was one of the leading advocates and most prominent popularizers, did the lion's share of the damage.

Christians, too, are sinners. We know that. We know that quite well, as a rule. But somehow, when we read that somebody of whom we disapprove has died- especially if they're advocates or examples of lifestyles which run counter to the teachings of the Faith- we can be dependably relied upon to forget that. There may be nothing which as nearly as damning evidence of our own moral corruption as the fact that we can presume to judge Hugh Hefner.

His behavior, yes. Nothing wrong with pointing out the inhuman consequences of the lifestyle he advocated and practiced; in fact, that's the Church's responsibility. But judging the person- not making the distinction between the behavior and the one who behaves that way- is another matter. People are quite fond of quoting Jesus's injunction to "judge not, lest you be judged" (Matthew 7:1-5) while ignoring the fact that He had no reservations whatsoever about letting the Pharisees and sometimes His own disciples an earful when they spoke or acted in ways unbecoming children of His Father. If "judging" meant what our culture wants it to mean, Jesus would be one of the greatest hypocrites who ever lived.

But as He himself pointed out, He did not come to judge the world. He came to save it. He came to die for the Pharisees, and for Hugh Hefner, and for you and me. He came to forgive, to embrace the prodigal, to weep tears of joy over the sinner who repents. And He weeps tears of the deepest sorrow over those who refuse. As one of my college theology profs used to say, on Judgment Day the words Jesus will pronounce to those on His left hand will be the words of a well-known hamburger commercial, spoken with a sadness so deep that our minds and hearts cannot comprehend it: "Have it your way."

If we're tempted to gloat over what we imagine to be Hugh Hefner's eternal fate, it's because we've forgotten that we deserve it no less. The legalism and hypocrisy of Christians provide one reason why we're becoming an increasingly pagan society. but probably an even greater reason is the increasing intensification among Christian and non-Christian alike of the tendency deeply rooted in the fallen human heart to be a Pharisee. "Lord, I thank you that I am not as others are, even the guy who publishes the magazine with the naked women in it" may not be quite the words on our lips or our fingertips as we ply the keyboard, but if we're honest, they represent what is in the hearts of most of us today.

We presume to look down at Hugh Hefner- or at gays and lesbians, or drug addicts, or welfare cheats, or Republicans, or whoever in our own corrupted hearts we wrongly see as more worthy of judgment than we are- because we are in denial about the ugliness in our own hearts. That's not a fault unique to Christians. Those who sneer at Christians are exhibiting exactly the same failing, and we all are getting less and less ashamed at its absurdity because more and more we're denying it. As the culture wars intensify, and we see the world more and more as a matter of "us and them," we cast ourselves as the "good guys," no matter which side we're on. and those who are on the other side as the "bad guys." In short, we see the mote in their eyes, to coin a phrase, but miss the plank in our own.

Only those who have forgotten who they are can presume to judge Hugh Hefner and only those who are in denial about who they are can judge those who judge him.

But that's not the worst part. The worst part is that we've forgotten who God is.

Missouri Synod theologian Rod Rosenbladt tells a story about his own earthly father which he treats as a metaphor for the way our Heavenly Father relates to us. That makes people mad, he reports. But he sticks to his guns- and thank God if Christianity is right, so is he.

One day when he was young Dr. Rosenbladt and some friends got drunk. On the way home, he got into an accident, and his car was totaled.

He called home and told his dad what had happened, and that he and his friends were drunk. The first thing his dad said was to ask whether he and his friends were all right. Assured that they were, the older Rosenbladt said that he would be right there to get him.

Dr. Rosenbladt sat next to his father in silence all the way home, his eyes on the floor, sick with shame. His dad noticed that. The first thing Dad did when he got home was to sternly tell his mother not to so much as say a single word to young Rod.

He took him into the living room and sat him down on the couch next to him. After a moment, he asked young Rod a question whose answer he already knew- an answer which even then was plain to anyone who even looked at him: "How are you feeling?"

Young Rod told him. They sat together in silence for a while. And then Dad said, "Well, it seems to me that we need to see what we can do about getting you a new car. I'll take the day off for work tomorrow, and you and I can do some shopping around."

That was it. The Law had done its work. What remained nothing but Gospel- nothing but a father's love for a son who had no need for even a single angry word.

That's Who God is if Christianity is right. He's the Father who performs what Martin Luther called His "alien work" of judgment and condemnation and anger reluctantly, unwillingly, and only when He has to. He's the Father Whose "proper work," in Luther's phrase, is to embrace His guilty child and wipe his tears away and meet his shame with nary an angry word, but only the determination to heal what has been broken.

If Dr. Rosenbladt is wrong- if God is Who we, in our ungrateful and judgmental moments we imagine Him to be, and Who we seem so bound and determined to convince the unbelievers all around us that He is, thus driving them away from His arms- then we are all in trouble.

I will not self-righteously pretend that when I heard the news about Hef the same smug thought didn't go through my mind that we're seeing all over the Internet today from those who of all people have the least excuse for considering themselves any better than Hugh Hefner. But I have another fantasy which I prefer. I hope it's the truth. And who knows? It might be.

I imagine that in his last moments Hugh Hefner was honest with himself, and saw what he was, and the damage that he had done. I fantasize that with his last breath. with long-repressed shame, he asked for the mercy which you and I need every bit as much as he.

And I know for a fact that if my fantasy is true, and if there is anything about the Christian faith that is even close to being right and if God is Who Jesus told us that He is and modeled for us by dying for the very people who nailed Him to the cross, Hugh Hefner is at this very moment rejoicing with the saints in light.

And I hope that my fantasy is so.