"HOW SHALL WE THEN LIVE?" Francis Schaeffer

Sunday, April 24, 2005

DEATH OF THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY



The Earl of Shaftesbury
(Filed: 21/04/2005)
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The 10th Earl of Shaftesbury, whose death aged 66 was confirmed yesterday, demonstrated the dangers of the possession of inherited wealth coupled with a weakness for women and Champagne.

Shaftesbury, who disappeared last November prompting an international police investigation, was tall, debonair, affable and rather shy.

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It was said, after his mysterious disappearance from a Cannes nightclub, that the 10th Earl, like Gladstone, had been devoting himself to helping vulnerable young girls working in nightspots on the French Riviera to start new lives. But as the mystery deepened, it seemed that his interest was more than merely philanthropic.

Indeed, Lord Shaftesbury had always exhibited a weakness for exotic women. At Eton he had famously penned an article for the college magazine in which he described English debutantes as "round-shouldered, unsophisticated garglers of pink champagne". His subsequent amorous career was notable for his avoidance of the species.

He met his Italian-born first wife, Bianca Le Vien, the ex-wife of an American film producer and 12 years his senior, during a skiing holiday. They married in 1966, but divorced, owing to his adultery with an unnamed woman, in 1976. The same year he married a Swedish-born divorcee, Christina Casella, the daughter of a diplomat, with whom he had two sons.

That marriage, too, ended acrimoniously, in 2000, and he embarked on a string of short-lived and expensive love affairs with younger women distinguished by their exotic looks and equally colourful past histories.

He became a familiar figure in some of the loucher nightspots on the French Riviera, where he cut a curious figure in leather trousers, pink shirts and large red-and-black spectacles; he was notable for his habit of flashing his money around as he bought drinks for a succession of nubile female companions.

JB here: There is that phrase, "Payback is Hell."
As a radical follower of Jesus Christ, the God/man, I believe in moral absolutes. There is TRUTH, there is Right and there is Wrong.
Lord Shaftesbury believed in moral relativism (at least that's how he appeared to live). His life attempted to deny the existence of a moral God. In his own way, he lived as if he set the standards. Now he has to pay for rejecting God's inviolate laws. Hell, the final consequence to those who think they set the rules.
"Payback is Hell."
For those of us who follow the God/man - we seek for mercy; we badly need it. JB

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