Neal Pollard
The word is out about the death today of Hollywood icon, Elizabeth Taylor. Movie critics, while saying that she was far from the best actress who ever performed, talk about how she was able to be successful on film through childhood, teen years, young adult, and into midlife and they talk about how naturally she connected with audiences through her physical beauty. She was an award-winning actress, but she was probably more noted for the exploits of her private life than for anything else. Today, Hollywood overflows with men and women engaged in the grossest of immoral behaviors, but she could certainly be considered a pioneer for such in relatively tamer times.
John Harti, at Today.com, in reviewing her life on and off-screen, reflected on her luring actor Eddie Fisher away from his wife and into a marriage with her (already her fourth), leaving Fisher for the already married Richard Burton (number five), and having a final tally of eight marriages, seven of which ended in divorce. She was pregnant by Michael Todd before she made him husband number three, still being married to Michael Wilding.
While it is certainly social propriety to speak respectfully of the dead, Taylor’s legacy does not parallel that of men and women who have striven to respect God’s Word concerning marriage and morality. One is left to think how responsible she was in helping create the terribly immoral culture that endemically permeates Hollywood today. She was far from the first to have a prurient private life, but she did much to move such muck and mud from the mum to the marketplace! Her behavior signaled, or at least accelerated, the trend in contemporary culture to glamorize and even idealize sexual lifestyles that flouted the biblical pattern for such behavior once held in much higher regard.
It is sad to know that she has made the transition from time to eternity. As far as is known, she was not a New Testament Christian (her conversion to Judaism many years ago was much-publicized). She seemed impenitent and lacking remorse for wielding such a toxic influence regarding marriage and sexual purity. Yet, this is another firm reminder for us to look to the only proper place for guidance and truth regarding such matters. Whatever the world validates and defends, our stand must be with God’s Word. Try as many might, Matthew 19:9, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Galatians 5:19-21, and Hebrews 13:4 cannot be expunged from His inspired will. Joe and Carolyn Barber, so long and faithful as members here at Bear Valley, are looking at 61 years of wedded bliss, a lifetime spent working together and being together and loving it. They will never garner the attention of tinseltown stars and starlets, but they are the kind of people whose behavior in this realm should be displayed, written about, and showered with attention. When I think of Ms. Taylor’s legacy, it simply makes me sad.
The Preacher Pollard Blog 
Your words are so true. I thought about her eternal destination when I heard the news today and then wondered if anyone ever told her how to obtain salvation.