Referencing Harvey Weinstein’s sex abuse scandal, a friend asked me if I thought this was going to end up being Hollywood’s version of the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. I immediately replied, “Nope. It’s going to be much worse.”
Hollywood is in full-on damage control as the privileged members of the leftist promised land feign shock and dismay at the accusations that Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed and raped women. As the number of accusations continues to grow, mixed signals about who knew what and who didn’t know what cloud the discussion. While I’m sure that some people in Hollywood were unaware, it’s naïve to believe that Weinstein’s behavior wasn’t enabled by many Hollywood power-brokers, famous actors, and leftist politicians who could’ve stopped it. Even worse, many of those feigning shock and dismay are probably busy googling “non-extradition countries” while dictating a denunciation of Weinstein to a spokesperson. After all, this is the industry that gave a standing ovation to convicted pedophile Roman Polanski, continues to fete alleged rapist Woody Allen, and grovels at the feet of Bill Clinton, a man who sexually abused women who were under his power.
Anyone still buying the “shock” from Hollywood should watch the clip embedded in the Tweet below. In 2013, Seth MacFarlane joked about Weinstein and his abuse of women (this is in addition to the scores of Hollywood elite hiding behind some version of “I heard the rumors, but didn’t see anything myself”).
https://twitter.com/BecketAdams/status/917810546627481606
One of the rules of comedy is that an element of truth makes a joke funnier. The joke about Hollywood’s casting couch has been around a lot longer than Harvey Weinstein has. Known for sexual hedonism since its inception, Hollywood has elevated preying on the dreams of the vulnerable and exploiting women, men, and even children to slake the lust of progressives into an art form, literally. In fact, casting couch jokes have too much truth in them; those jokes are not funny.
And that’s the thing — as repulsive as Weinstein’s behavior is, he’s not an outlier in Hollywood.
Shocking everyone, yet not really shocking anyone, actor Terry Crews almost broke Twitter with his revelation that a highly placed Hollywood executive sexually assaulted him. In a flurry of Tweets, Crews claimed that this unnamed executive groped his crotch. Crews wanted to pound the guy into the floor, but realized that “‘240 lbs. Black Man stomps out Hollywood Honcho’ would be the headline the next day.”
My wife n I were at a Hollywood function last year n a high level Hollywood executive came over 2 me and groped my privates. (2/cont.)
— terry crews (@terrycrews) October 10, 2017
In the conversation with my friend about Weinstein, I mentioned Terry Crews and predicted that as more people come forward, more in Hollywood will feel emboldened to share their own tale of being sexually harassed or assaulted; as the floodgates open, names will start being named. In a tweet, I asked, “How long before Corey Feldman begins naming names?”
If I were a betting man, I would be willing to bet every worldly possession that I own that my prediction is going to be proven true. In fact, it’s already starting to happen. While writing this article, Ben Affleck tweeted this admission:
I acted inappropriately toward Ms. Burton and I sincerely apologize
— Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) October 11, 2017
Let the record state, I’m not a prophet. You see, on a much, much smaller scale, I witnessed firsthand the moral vacuum of the entertainment industry and progressivism.
Working as an actor for close to fifteen years means that I’ve spent over a third of my life surrounded by people who idolize Hollywood. Even the theatre actors who disparaged the movie industry secretly composed their future Oscar speeches. Hollywood was our rich, distant cousin. Their worldview and our worldview were almost identical.
An integral part of that worldview was a rejection of the “puritanical and oppressive” sexuality of Biblical Christianity. Any strictures against sexual expression were verboten. The consequences of this worldview played out in a number of ways.
During my time as a company member with a Shakespeare festival, I learned the phrase “gay in training.” At the beginning of each season, the gay men in the cast would eyeball the interns, stage hands, and new cast members and decide which ones would become a “gay in training.” Keep in mind that many of the targets were underage. Inevitably, a previously masculine straight male would be manipulated and psychologically tortured into becoming a queen that was passed around for the enjoyment of the gay cast members.
How did the feminists of the cast react? The same way that the rest of the progressive company members reacted — they laughed and cheered it on.
If I ever write a memoir, maybe I’ll detail the hot-tub “parties” that we were strongly urged to attend, and the amount of unwanted hands (of producers and directors) that ended up down my pants as well as the pants of my fellow actors and actresses. Maybe I’ll tell about how at theatre parties the best-looking members of the cast were steered to the richest patrons of the theatre. Maybe I’ll give details about the times that actresses and actors were shamed because they were reticent to engage in sexual activity on stage. “It’s just acting,” they would be told. “Stop being a prude, and let him stick his hand up your shirt. Or would you rather so-and-so take over the role?”
As a young adult who had recently “escaped” from Christian fundamentalism, I had trouble synthesizing my new liberal views with what was happening around me. As I got older, as I got paid to be in a play directed by a semi-famous feminist who forced underaged girls to share a dressing room with grown men, I began to see that my new worldview was proverbially and, at times, literally the emperor without any clothes.
I became angry. Looking back on it, I realize that the Holy Spirit was drawing me to God the Father. At the time, though, having rejected God, my new worldview being exposed as deeply and selfishly exploitative was shattering to me. My progressive heroes who decried Christianity’s rules were engaged in the sexual abuse of each other. By way of contrast, I began to realize that the “prudish” and “oppressive” rules of conservative Christians made sense. I fought that truth for years because I had my own sins that I wanted to cling to.
Rebelling against their Creator, Hollywood and progressives are providing a depraved display of what Judges 21:25 means when it says, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
Liberals are beginning to blame the problem on patriarchy. The new story is going to be that if women are allowed to run Hollywood, this type of abuse will stop. This is nonsense. Women are as prone to sin, to lust, to the pursuit of power as are men. The problem is Hollywood and progressivism’s rebellion against God.
The Roman Catholic Church was rocked by their sex abuse scandal. Hollywood is going to find itself decimated to the point of being unrecognizable by this growing sex abuse scandal. The sad reality is that until King Jesus returns, those who are actively rebelling against God will continue to sexually abuse others. Even if Hollywood as we know it is taken down by the Harvey Weinstein sex abuse scandal, the problem will not be solved. The left loves their sexual freedom too much to let a scandal stand in their way as they feed their unbridled lust. One of the sad things is that many professing Christians will continue to look to Hollywood and to leftists for approval.
(Addendum: Neither my fear of reprisal nor my confusion over the hypocrisy of my new worldview justified my silence during my years as an actor. However, I can empathize with actors and actresses who don’t want to name names.)
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