That old meme about “Hef” came to pass a few years ago, when the self-styled “playboy” finally kicked the bucket at the age of 91. Now, Christians have been losing our minds about him for decades – and with good reason, because his lifestyle was entirely contradictory to sensible principles. To the young and hedonistic, though, he seemed to be living the dream life, living in a big mansion, drinking whiskey, smoking cigars, and surrounded by beautiful women.

However, quite a bit of evidence has emerged over the last few years, indicating that Hugh Hefner was an absolute, incorrigible, awful degenerate.

None of this comes as a surprise to anyone who actually understands what hedonism does to a man’s mind. But it says something about the debased times in which we live, that people only really get outraged about Hef’s life when animals get involved.

The Ugly Truth

There is a new documentary out on something called “A&E Network” – I used to watch some of their shows about 10 years ago, when I still was young, dumb, and wealthy enough to subscribe to cable every month – called Secrets of Playboy, which has attracted quite a few noisome headlines of late. I haven’t seen the show, and don’t plan to. The nastier revelations are enough to turn one’s stomach:

VIP members of the Playboy nightclubs could do as they pleased, including revered Soul Train host Don Cornelius who allegedly held two Playboy bunnies hostage and raped one of them, according to the docuseries. 

Holly Madison, a model who dated Hefner for eight years, also tells how Hefner refused to use protection during sex and how the Playboy Bunny lifestyle a even led her to consider suicide.

The series also includes interviews with Linda Lovelace, the 1970s porn star who found fame with the film Deep Throat, who says she was treated like a ‘piece of meat’ and forced to perform oral sex on a German Shepherd while Hefner and his friends watched.

The documentary is a critical reexamination of the legacy of iconic Playboy publisher, who died in 2017 aged 91.

Hefner was just 27 years old when he launched the first edition of Playboy magazine in 1953.

Featuring Marilyn Monroe on the cover, the first issue sold more than 50,000 copies and spawned an empire which spanned decades.

By the 1970s Playboy was selling seven million copies a month and Hefner opened up dozens of Playboy clubs where members gained entry using a key which literally opened the front door. 

Welp… that about ruins lunch, eh?

Turns out, though, that such acts were far from the limits of Hef’s degenerate ways – allegedly, since his son and Playboy have issued strenuous denials about the contents of the series. However, one of Hef’s mistresses, whom he wifed up (for some reason), confirmed another dark side of the man’s personality.

Wait, It Gets Worse!

That is more or less what Crystal Hefner looks like these days, and one has to say, she cleans up really well, given what she got up to while she was with the man. But here’s what she had to say about her late husband’s vengeful streak and desire to control his many, MANY mistresses:

On Monday night, in an episode of the 10-part A&E series Secrets of Playboy, an ex-girlfriend of Hefner’s, Madison, told about the dark side of Hefner’s personality.

Madison, 42, who was with Hefner from 2001-8, said that he kept ‘all kinds of naked pictures’ of women so he could allegedly use them as a form of blackmail. 

The former model said she remained with Hefner at the Playboy Mansion in part because she was frightened that he would publish the photos.

‘His friends were always so supportive and speaking so highly of him,’ Madison said in the documentary. 

‘But that’s the only side of him they ever saw. They had no idea what was going on behind closed doors and how the women were treated. 

‘When I lived at the mansion, I was afraid to leave. Something that was always lingering in the back of my mind, I think since the very beginning, was that if I left there was just this mountain of revenge porn just waiting to come out.’

Madison added: ‘When you would go out with Hef, he’s taking all kinds of naked pictures of these women when we’re wasted out of our minds. 

‘And he would print out like eight copies for him and all the women, you pass them around. It was just gross.’

On Tuesday, Crystal confirmed Madison’s account. 

Let’s be really clear about something – Ms Madison is FAR from a paragon of virtue herself. Read about her life (I mean, if you’re of a masochistic bent), and you’ll quickly realise that she has a long history of making bad decisions while seeking relevance in a world that no longer particularly cares for her brand of drama.

That does not, in and of itself, allow us to dismiss her accusations against Hefner.

Your Best Life Now?

The story behind Hef is not new. It is as old as Mankind. It is a tale of debauchery and degeneracy, caused in no small part by Mr. Hefner’s refusal to acknowledge any restraints upon his own impulses and desires. He was raised Methodist – don’t ask me what that means – but turned against the Christian faith of his family, because he viewed God’s commandments against fornication and adultery as restrictions upon freedom.

This is the precise opposite of the truth. And that rejection resulted in what we see today, where a man who was once a hero to the libertine Boomers, has now been exposed as a perverted, creepy, disgusting old man.

See that meme up at the top of this post? It was meant to be funny, but it actually reveals a deep truth. It jives with what arch-heretic Joel Osteen constantly preaches from his pulpit. If you think that you can have your best life NOW, then you WILL be right – because you REALLY won’t enjoy the next one.

Scripture is clear and absolutely unequivocal about the true meaning of freedom. Real freedom, as I have written so many times by now, DOES NOT mean doing whatever you want.

No, real freedom comes when you impose discipline from within yourself, instead of being forced to obey discipline from outside yourself.

And the only proven way to achieve that freedom in a way that lends purpose and meaning to one’s life, is to obey the commandments of Him who gave us the ability to choose freedom over slavery.

Enslaved by Passions

For a man who gives himself up to his passions is forever enslaved by them. But the man who conquers those passions and refuses to give in to them, cannot be broken, blackmailed, or bought. This makes him both easy and difficult to defeat in battle – I’ve noted before how honourable men are the easy to destroy, but they are also ferocious fighters when forced to defend what they believe in.

But what happens when you believe in nothing except that which makes you happy?

Then you bend easily, and give in to anything that you think might make you happy. And in the process, you ruin everyone and everything around you.

For a man enslaved to his passions will believe anything, and call anything legitimate and just, in order to excuse his own wickedness. St. Paul got it absolutely right in Romans 1:24-32, where he outlined what would happen when men turned their backs on God and decided to do as they pleased.

The results cannot be summed up better than Hef’s life and legacy. Many thought that he lived a great life. He didn’t. What he actually did, ruined the lives of the women that willingly entered into the Playboy Mansion, and ruined the lives of countless men who found themselves chasing after tempting visions of what Hefner represented.

The moral of this story could not be clearer. Do not give in to debased, degenerate passions – for, if you do, your mind will eventually no longer be your own. And when that happens, what “freedom” you thought you had, will disappear with it.

Life is not about doing whatever you want. Life is about serving God and doing what HE wants you to do, for HIS glory, not yours. There will be long, grinding, terrible stretches of time when you REALLY WILL NOT LIKE what God is doing to you. But, the thing is, God doesn’t need you – at all. A perfect, complete being needs no companions and no complements.

You exist because He wants you to exist, to serve Him, if you so choose. Chasing after worldly pleasures is a great way to distract you from that duty – until one day, you find yourself adrift, alone, utterly isolated from everything and everyone that gave your life meaning.

That place is known as Hell, and it is the ultimate destination for ALL whose deranged passions lead to deranged minds.