Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 22
December 12, 1970
NUMBER 31, PAGE 8b

The Playboy Misconcept

Floyd Chappelear

Playboy Magazine is one of the most popular journals in America today. (This writer even knows of some preachers who delight in reading it and who suggest that others do the same.) Most of those who read it try to justify the publication on the grounds that it has some of of the best-written articles in print anywhere. This may be true but so did the Saturday Evening Post at one time. The Post died in spite of its good writings. Therefore I believe that we can readily concur in the assumption that Playboy has survived not because of its writings but because of its other features.

One of the most striking features (aside from its most obvious one) is what is known popularly as the Playboy Philosophy. This philosophy is championed by Hugh Hefner (the editor) and by Anson Mount (the religious editor) as an answer to Puritanism, the scourge of Western society. Regular features attack Puritanism and its attendant evils with enthusiasm. After all, Puritanism must be done away with if we are to live in moral and spiritual freedom, or so argue the men in question.

However, it is my contention that Playboy is fighting a straw man. She does not present viable arguments against the Biblical view of sex and the morality of man but rather fights a code that is accepted by nobody alive today and when victorious over the non-existent enemy prates boldly that she has destroyed the Bible oriented view that sex is either sinful or contemptible. To my knowledge there is no one who accepts the abhorred Puritan ethic. For instance, who contends that a gossiping wife should be assigned to the dunking stool? Who maintains today that the unfaithful husband should be put in stocks? Who today argues that the thief should be branded with a hot iron? The Puritans did. The fact is thus quite clear, there are no living Puritans today.

As for the argument that the Biblical view of sex is that it is dirty or unclean such is not the case at all. Rather, the Lord said that "marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled. . ." (Heb. 13:4). Let us not be swayed by the Playboy Philosophy as it is unwarranted, unjustified, and downright ignorant. It argues for love but instills in its adherents the most contemptible form of hate for all that is righteous. It maintains that instead of loving people and using things that we should love things and use people. Especially is this so in respect to its attitude toward one of God's loveliest creatures — woman. Be not deceived by the Playboy Misconcept. It looks good, but it reeks of stupidity.

— 1925 Gerard Park, Hazelwood, Missouri