Pints With Aquinas - 73.5 What would Thomas Aquinas say about Hugh Hefner

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to Pints with Aquinas, episode 73.5. I'm Matt Fradd. What would Thomas Aquinas say about Hugh Hefner? That's what I want to address really briefly in this little episode. Little episode? Yeah, little episode. Hey, thanks for being with us. If I sound a little deflated and tired, it's because I'm tired. It's 8.25 in the morning and I haven't had my coffee yet. I hope you have.

Starting point is 00:00:37 Look, by now you've heard the news. Founder of Playboy, Hugh Hefner, is dead. Reactions to his death have been as spirited as they've been diverse. On one end, you've got the mainstream media end, the New York Times end, the Cosmo ridiculous end. You've got those who are hailing him as essentially a champion of free speech and a liberator of the sexually repressed. Vomit emoji. My friend Patrick Truman from the National Center on Sexual Exploitation wrote a great article yesterday. I'll throw it in the show notes so you can check it out. The Washington Examiner is where the article is. And he said this, among other things, he said,

Starting point is 00:01:26 Hugh Hefner was not a champion of free speech. He was a pioneer in the sexual objectification and use of women. Okay. Right. So, anyway, but I'm digressing here. On the other end of this spectrum, you have people, even Christians, who have apparently no qualms expressing their unveiled hatred of the man. Just yesterday, Jason Everett tweeted this out. I thought it was very good. He said, Hugh Hefner, the founder of Playboy, just passed away. Please join us in praying for his soul and for everyone wounded from his choices. I thought that was a great tweet because it summed up both like we want to pray for him, but we don't want to just like whitewash the man and all that he's done. But anyway, look at this tweet that was direct. The first response was this

Starting point is 00:02:17 clearly from a Catholic. He said, I will not pray for him. I hope he spends a lot of time in purgatory, lots of it. And that's if he asks for salvation. Shame on you, Hugh Hefner. Well, look, I understand the man's reaction. I think, you know, many of us realize that the pornographic revolution was probably started or or spread perhaps by Hugh Hefner. Hugh Hefner said of the pervert Alfred Kinsey, if he is the prophet, I am his pamphleteer. I think you and I should say if Carol Wojtyla was the prophet, we are his pamphleteers. But anyway, what would Aquinas have to say? And I think what he's going to have to say is something in the middle, right? He's not going to say, he's not going to whitewash, obviously, all the awful things Hugh Hefner did, nor is he going to say something as spiteful as this man said on Twitter. So, what would he say?

Starting point is 00:03:15 Well, you've heard this a million times before, I'm sure. Love the sinner, hate the sin. I'm not sure if this comes directly from Aquinas. It's not a direct quote from him, but it certainly is a summation of his thought in a response of his in the Summa Theologiae, the Secundus Secundi, question 34, article 3. So I just want to wrap up with this little quote because it's power-packed and I think it will guide us in how we ought to think about Hugh Hefner. He says, and he's responding to the question, is it ever okay to hate somebody? And he says, hatred is opposed to love, so that hatred of a thing is evil according as the love of that thing is good. That's a good line, isn't it? Hatred of a thing is evil in accord with how much that thing is good, according as the love of that thing is good. So, it's a good thing to love God. It's a better thing to love God than to love man. It's a better thing to love a man than to love a dog, right? We might even say it's a better thing to love a dog than to love an ant in this

Starting point is 00:04:33 whole hierarchy of being. So, if you hate a dog, well, that might be an evil thing. There might be a deprivation of a good that ought to be there. But if you hate a man, that's clearly much worse. Or if you say you hate a man who is your father, that's clearly worse than just hating a man. If you hate God, well, that's the worst sin of all, Aquinas is going to say elsewhere. So just that line again, hatred of a thing is evil according as the love of that thing is good. All right, Aquinas continues, now love is due to our neighbor in respect of what he holds from God, that is, in respect of nature and grace, but not in respect of what he has of himself and from the devil, that is, in respect

Starting point is 00:05:28 of sin and lack of justice. So, Hefner is our neighbor. He has been created in the image and likeness of God. And for that reason, we ought to love him. Now, what we shouldn't love is what he has in respect of himself, right? And from the devil, that is sin and lack of justice. And so, Aquinas continues, consequently, it is lawful to hate the sin in one's brother and whatever pertains to the defect of divine justice. But we cannot hate our brothers, nature, and grace without sin. There it is. So, if you hate Hugh Hefner, repent of it. If you hate Hugh Hefner, or if you've said hateful things on social media, repent of it. Now, again, hateful things isn't the same thing as truthful things. So, to say Hugh Hefner, from all accounts, was a perverted, miserable

Starting point is 00:06:34 man who had a lot of great potential that went down the toilet, that's not a hateful thing to say. I think that's an accurate thing to say. But if you're going to say things like this guy said that I won't pray for him, and you've got other people who say things like, glad that asshole's no longer with us, you know, I think we should, you know, seriously consider repenting of that, you know, just like, yeah. And repenting doesn't have to be a big deal here. I mean, depending on what you've written or what you've said, it might just be like, look, I'm sorry I said that. I shouldn't have said that. I'm prayers for his soul or something. Aquinas concludes by saying this. Now, it is part of our love for our brother that we hate the fault and lack of good in him. It's part of our love for Hefner that we hate the sin that was so evident in his life.

Starting point is 00:07:27 That's part of our love for him. Aquinas says, since desire for another's good is equivalent to hatred of his evil. So, to the degree in which you want another's good, you will hate his evil. To the degree in which you want another's good, you will hate the evil in him and the evil he commits. Consequently, says Aquinas, the hatred of one's brother, if we consider it simply, is always evil. So, we should love the sinner, hate the sin. We should love Hugh Hefner. How should we love Hugh Hefner? Well, just last night on Twitter, I said my wife and I were going to pray a chaplet of divine mercy. And we did, and I said, if you want to pray with us, just like this tweet.

Starting point is 00:08:16 And we had well over 100 people like that. So that's really sweet to think that that many people decided to pray for Hugh Hefner. That can be one way you pray for him. That can be one way you pray for him. That can be one way you love him. Secondly, you might share a great article that I think gets this right. You know, it gets that kind of balance between clearly he did a lot of evil things, but like, let's also have compassion on this pathetic man. yeah? And I would say, check out Christopher West's article. He did a great article on this yesterday. It's called A Compassionate Christian Reflection on the Death of Hugh Hefner. If you go to pintswithaquinas.com, the very top article, at least

Starting point is 00:08:58 right now as I record this podcast, you'll see, you know, the direct quote that I just gave you from Aquinas. You'll also see that tweet I was talking about, and you'll also see this link to Christopher West's article. So maybe go check that out. That's pintswithaquinas.com, pintswithaquinas.com. Why don't we close with a prayer for Hugh Hefner. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase your mercy in us that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to your holy will, which is love

Starting point is 00:09:43 and mercy itself. Lord Jesus Christ, we pray that you would have mercy upon the soul of Hugh Hefner and all those who have been wounded by his choices. Thanks very much, guys. I'll still be with you on Tuesday. We'll be discussing the perpetual virginity of Mary, so be sure to tune in for that. In the meantime, God bless and a big thanks to everybody

Starting point is 00:10:06 who supports Pints with Aquinas on Patreon. Bye. Who's gonna survive? Who's gonna survive? Who's gonna survive? And I would give my whole life to carry you.

Pints With Aquinas - 73.5 What would Thomas Aquinas say about Hugh Hefner

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