G. Frink's

Gently ridiculed as "Earth shattering news" at a nearby site which has more understanding of these issues than we, Clay Aiken has come out of the so-called "closet."

We mention it because he is a son of North Carolina Southern Baptist nurture and enjoys the ongoing support of nearby Leesville Baptist Church.

Official Southern Baptist Convention policy takes a boot-you-right-out position against churches which permit fellowship with homosexuals.

That strikes us as a contortion of theology to contradict biology -- a contortion which serves to stoke up the fires of homophobia to help drive the culture wars.

It is, then, a malevolent manipulation, unlike Mr. Aiken's benign and to some eyes at least slightly comical revelation of the well-known.