A Christian’s Response to the Death of Hugh Hefner

As a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, I pursue to follow in His footsteps in everything I do and how I live my life so that I can become more like Christ (Romans 12:2). How Jesus chose to interact with the world and sinners has been written quite plainly in Mark 2:15, “Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi’s house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him.” Jesus, the Holy one Himself sat with the most looked down upon of society. He sat and broke bread with them. Jesus, the God-man who has all right to pass judgment upon them for their sin and wickedness, showed love, grace, and mercy. In the book of John the Pharisees brought a woman who was caught in adultery and by law, she should have been stoned. But Jesus (The Word of God Himself) showed love and mercy. He said to her, “Go and sin no more” (John 8:1-11).

On September 27, 2017, Hugh Hefner died at age 91. Hugh Hefner was an American businessman, magazine publisher, and Playboy. He was the editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine, which he founded in 1953. He was also the chief creative officer of Playboy Enterprises, which is the publishing group that operates the magazine. To put it plainly, Hugh Hefner was the businessman behind Playboy Enterprise and fought for the legalization and freedom of adult content and the father of the pornography industry. As a Christian, my heart broke and breaks for the life that this man has lived. As a follower of Jesus what has concerned me, even more, has been the response that I have seen by the Christian community on this matter. I am in no way condoning the actions, the life and the sins of Mr. Hugh Hefner. In no way does his life come into agreement with scripture, but He was a lost soul. In the eyes of Jesus, Hugh was a soul in need of the saving grace of Jesus Christ. I have seen many articles and many of which list out everything wrong, sinful, disgusting about the life of Hugh Hefner. By doing and saying such things, we are passing judgment upon this man. Judgment belongs to the Lord alone and not one person will escape it (Romans 2:1-3). We will be judged for the life that we lived. How do you propose that we Christians should have responded to his death? In no way am I saying that I know better or responded in a more holy way than the rest of the body of Christ. When I first found out of this man’s death, several judgemental words and phrases came flying off of my tongue. But, who am I to pass such judgment?I thank the Lord for the conviction of the Holy Spirit on this matter to bring to my attention to something that was obviously wrong in my heart towards sinners. I believe there was a correct way to respond to the passing of this man, that spoke of mercy, grace, love and the testimony of Jesus Christ Himself.

I still believe fully that Jesus is 100% good and merciful in everything. But a sinner turning to Jesus doesn’t just mean uttering a few words. It means the turning of my heart and my will away from sin and running into Jesus. I believe that the response of the Church should have been prayer. We as a body should have prayed for mercy on this man’s soul. There’s a cliche phrase that we hear a lot that God is the God of second chances. I don’t believe that at all because God has given me way more chances than that. So, God could have given Hugh Hefner that last last chance before crossing the veil into the eternal flame. You, Hugh Hefner, and I are all sinners in need of the saving the grace of Jesus and I fully believe that God could have given that chance to him if he had repented of His sinful and wicked ways and turned to God. In conclusion to the reason for such an article is to bring to light immaturity in us as a body. A judgmental spirit is the counterfeit of love. We are supposed to be the body of Christ who loves sinners into the Kingdom, not the ones who judge them back to the streets. It was one of the mandates given to us by Jesus on how to live out our lives (Luke 6). My hope and prayer on this day is that God would and have shown mercy to Hugh Hefner. You may have read this entire article and you are in complete disagreement with my perspective, but I’m alright with that. If God saved and showed mercy to a prostitute from the streets of Jerusalem, He would’ve shown mercy to Hugh Hefner. Think about it.