Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Sept. 16/62

Contributor -T. Hogerwaard

Title - Marilyn Monroe's Suicide

Topic - Marilyn MonroeSaturday night 4th August the discussion in our family circle had been about the fact that a life of determined sin inevitably ends in destruction, (All who hate Me, love death) and that a great many who defied God openly and consistently ended by taking their own lives.

The next morning, August 5th, as it was one of my vacation Sundays we went to Guelph to worship there.

Rev. Kolenbrander had as his topic for that morning the 7th Commandment: "You shall Pot commit adultery". Shortly after we had come home the radio announced that the famous "sex queen" Marilyn Monroe had committed suicide by means of an overdose of sleeping-pills. Her nude body, lifeless, had been found by doctors, with one each hand resting on the telephone receiver, the other clutching the sheets. This horrible piece of radio news was so to say an application of the sermon we had heard that morning and an Illustration of the things we had discussed Saturday night. It might be well for us not to forget this but to realize what this tragic end of the life of this young woman has to say to us.

The first consideration is one of deep sorrow and shame. We live supposedly in a Christian world -, this part of the world is covered with Churches of all shades and hues ; all radio-stations broadcast religious messages galore ; Billy Graham and faith healers of the Pentecostal type count their successes by the hundreds of thou sands, resulting in "decisions for Christ". At the same time a life ir as that of Marilyn Monroe is possible with its terrible end.

Could it be perhaps that our brand of Christianity is too much of the wordy type and that we as Christians are far from being an illustration of Paul's words that the Kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power ?

To there a relation between the sort of life Marilyn Monroe lived and her death by her own hand

We are told that she had an extremely unhappy childhood ; when she died the address of her mother - long a patient in a mental hospital - was unknown. She called herself a waif and was educated by others. If we may believe the news, those who educated her were egoistic narrowminded people, without a trace of Christian joy and love, a caricature of everything Christ wants to impart to us and wants to see in our lives. She was assaulted at an early age and as a girl of 16 had a short and unsuccessful marriage. Things began to change when the film producers discovered that the shape of her body and the sexual appeal than oozed from every pore were exactly what the public all over the world wanted to see.

From the period shortly after the war till recently her films were viewed by millions, she was known all over the world and millions of dollars profit were made on her films by the Holywood producers.

She possessed everything that millions in this world consider the only worthwhile things: a body coveted by millions of males and envied by millions of females, fame and everything money could buy. But how false and empty his was became clear when she took her life. It goes without saying that a person does not destroy his life because he is so deliriously happy

A few days earlier, in the issue of August 3rd, Life-magazine had carried an interview with her, profusely illustrated with photographs. For the one who read this with a bit of discernment and experience, the article was very revealing for it showed clearly the insecurity and uncertainty under all the glamorous veneer : the craving to be accepted, the gnawing feeling of worthlessness, the morbid concentration upon photographs showing her fame, to convince herself that she was somebody after all. But it was of no avail ; inside it was all emptiness and sorrow, the growing realization that the monstrous public which came to see her films, cared nothing for her as a person : she was simply an object for gratifying the meanest lusts in the phantasy. The film producers cynically regarded her only as a means to make millions of dollars. Their idea is: making money by giving the public what it wants.

What they want is sexual stimulation; here is a young woman who can provide that ; let's use her to make our millions out of people's sinful desires.

Now she is dead ; her last husband, being remarried in the meanwhile, did not show a glimmer of interest. What is left now of all this fame, all the luxury, all the interest of her "fans" ? The public interest has switched already to those "sex-goddesses" which are still around and alive, whose seductive bodies can be seen on the films, twisting and wrangling in the semi-nude.

When Faust expressed his compassion with Gretchen because of the terrible fate which had befallen her, Mephistopheles (the devil) cynically answered: She was not the first ; she will not be the last".

That's the attitude taken by her fans who have already switched to other woman of the same category.

How did someone who was coveted by millions and was envied by millions, who had everything that the world considers desirable, reach the point of despair that she destroyed her own life ? Psychology (often the pagan substitute of what the Word of God has to say about man and his condition) has an easy answer. Time - magazine, issue August 10th : "Twenty years ago when she was a warmly shopworn 16, she had first tried to kill herself. Guilt became her constant companion and she broke promises and contracts and friendships to seek it out".

This "case" will give psycho-analysts of the Freudian school a field day.

There is another way of looking at this tragedy. This woman was born 36 years ago as one to whom the Lord had granted life that she might know Him and be filled with joy and peace, looking forward to everlasting life with film. But in her short life she never touched the hem of Christ's robe. Partly pushed by others,. partly of her own free will she became a modern sex goddess, a modern day Astarte, making enormous sums of money by letting others in their imagination - break the seventh commandment with her. Her influence in this respect must not be underestimated. Due to the modern means of communication her films were seen and "enjoyed" by millions in New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris and Berlin, as well in Capetown, Nairobi and Hong Kong, greatly carrying out Satan's intention that God might be disobeyed and His commandments swept aside.

As a terrible refrain it goes through the Book of Kings: "like Jerobeam who made Israel sin". Doubtless by her pictures she has made millions sin, taking away all sexual discipline and inhibitions. The destruction of her inner life was a direct consequence of that and the lying astrologers to whom she turned for help were not able to help her of course.

That finally she took her life is not to be explained psychologically. It was not an incident. It is the inevitable consequence of a life who defied God and His will. Not to long ago another famous American, Hemingway, killed himself, with callous disregard for the one to whom he was married at that time. Here again there was one who had everything that men consider worthwhile : talent to write, fame, money, leisure to go deep-sea fishing and big game hunting in Africa and yet, the feeling of disgust became so strong that he blew out his brains. Why ?

Many years ago, Professor Paul Scholten, on occasion of a mission conference in Amsterdam spoke -bout the famous Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh who also took his own life. Professor Scholten ended his address by saying: "Finally everyone is destroyed by the demon he worshipped and served".

Here too is the explanation of the tragic end of Marilyn Monroe's life, of Hemingway's suicide, of that of Vincent van Gogh, king Saul, Judas and the many others ho did the same thing.

To know God and to serve Him is life, how hard and tough the outward circumstances may be at times, to resist Him means death, how easy and comfortable life may seem at times for those who do that.

The devil is a liar and a murderer from the beginning ; everyone who serves him will be destroyed. "The thief only comes to steal and to slaughter and to destroy, I have come that they Tay have life and have it abundantly". That is the voice of the Good Shepherd of the sheep addressing us, the voice of the One Who is truth and speaks the truth. And God the Father adds : "This is My beloved Son, hear Him".

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