I don’t really want to belabor the Clay Aiken “coming out” discussion here at Idol Chatter, but I have to say that after I caught his interview with Diane Sawyer, I stopped and did some thinking about what he had to say. As he spoke with Sawyer, he was actually very sweet and articulate about the fact that he was raised Southern Baptist, and still considers himself of that faith–even though he realizes he is not exactly welcomed with open arms by that denomination. He was also quick to say that he does not want to put himself in the place of telling those from generations before him– like his grandmother–that they are wrong in their opinions about the matter. To do so, would be a lack of respect for his elders.After listening to the interview, I began to think that this is the time to ask the evangelical community to consider the issue of homosexuality and the comments of professed Christians such as Aiken and others–from a slightly different perspective. While I don’t think I have all of the answers, one thing I have become convinced of as I talk to Christian friends of mine who wrestle with this issue is that some good could be done, dialogue could be improved, if as a community we confessed and asked for forgiveness for one thing: The fact that, as a whole, the modern church has done a terrible job of attempting to tackle this issue. We have spat out a scant few Bible verses to prove we are right and then dismissed the subject entirely–either out of fear or discomfort or both. We have not listened to others or educated ourselves as much as we have on other issues where evangelicals have taken a strong position– issues like abortion, stem cell research, etc. Generally speaking, we have offered quick fix “solutions” to those in the gay community without an effort to really get to know them.Yes, it is really hard to imagine that I thought of all of that after listening to someone who was once on a reality show, but I did. If you’d like to listen to the Aiken/Sawyer interview, click on the video below,