The pastor of a church in Wichita, Kansas where Clay Aiken is scheduled to sing at their Christmas concert wanted to assure elders that Aiken is not the heathen the media make him out to be. He sent out a letter saying that Aiken is a good Christian boy who is not gay. He even compared the stories that Aiken likes guys to the rumors that Mister Rogers was gay because he was a little light on his toes, too:

“There has been a lot of controversy surrounding Clay’s concert,” a church source told The Enquirer. “Some members didn’t want him to perform there if he was indeed homosexual.”

“The church received a lot of attacks when it was announced Clay would be performing, so Pastor Posson thought it was in the church’s best interest to circulate a letter.”

In the shocking letter, obtained by The Enquirer, Posson stressed that 28-year-old Clay is a Christian who does not “drink, smoke, swear or womanize.”

Posson also referenced a July 2003 interview with “Rolling Stone” magazine in which Clay denied being gay. Posson wrote that Clay also gave an interview with a Christian Web site in which he said he was not gay.

The pastor also makes a bizarre comparison in the letter, saying that Clay’s mannerisms and “soft” nature are similar to those of TV’s Mister Rogers. “If appearance and voice alone determine sexual orientation, then Fred Rogers (Mister Rogers), a conservative ordained Presbyterian minister, must have been one as well,” Posson wrote.

“By the way, (Rogers’) 51-year-old marriage ended upon his death in 2003.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, October 15, 2007]

That’s precious that he compares him to Mr. Rogers! All Clay needs to do is stop soliciting sex online and get married to a woman and the churches where he’s set to perform won’t need to issue statements to assure everyone he’s straight.

The pastor also says in his letter that the Green Beret guy who said he got with Clay Aiken has recanted his story about a night of passion with the singer. The Enquirer points out that it’s not true, and the man never took back his claim that he and Clay had sex in a hotel room in January of last year.

It was unclear to me what religion this church follows, so I googled them and sure enough they have a pretty extensive website, which only makes sense considering that they could afford to have Clay Aiken sing at their Christmas concert.

Skimming over the statements on their website (which is the only way I could get through them since I have an aversion to all things religious – blame it on thousands of hours clocked in Catholic church as a child) it seems they are your standard Bible-believing church, and say the word of the Bible is supreme. A lot of people quote scripture to claim that homosexuality is wrong, but there are a ton of other random things in there that people would never consider the ultimate word because they’re just ridiculous. Commentor Fabiola Thing points out quite a few in her comments on a post about Wentworth Miller:

Homosexuality is wrong because the Bible says so? Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. Exodus 21:7 sanctions selling one’s daughter into slavery. Exodus 35:2 clearly states anyone working on the Sabbath should be put to death.

Clay Aiken will be performing on November 26th at the church, and if you live near Wichita, Kansas or are enough of a Claymate to drive or fly to the event, you can get tickets on the floor for just $35.

Clay is shown in the header image on 8/8/07 outside his hotel in NY. Thanks to WENN for this photo.