Prof. Clark on Mahony, Playboy

If there is any one major contributing factor to the decline in public morality in the past 20 years--as reflected in serious social problems such as pandemic venereal disease, rising illegitimacy--among younger and younger girls, increasing divorce statistics--many of which involve sexual infidelity or sexual abuse by husbands addicted to porn, abortion etc., it has to be Playboy’s Hugh Hefner who glorifies promiscuous sex and promotes the concept that the wholesome girl next door is seducible.

Hefner does his best to legitimize his sleazy business by inviting influential people to write in his magazine or party at his mansion--but the fact is that he has been in the vanguard of the porn explosion we have witnessed in recent years. His legal advisers keep him just out of reach of the law but there are many that consider him to be the major enemy of the family--the basic element of a stable society.

Alexander Pope described vice as a “monster” that to “be hated needs but to be seen. / Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, / We first endure, then pity, then embrace.” Henry Clark’s defense of Playboy magazine indicates that he--like too many others--has embraced the monster.

RAYMOND P. GAUER

Past National Director

Citizens for Decency Through Law

Los Angeles