MONTGOMERY, AL — In spite of the Religious Right’s loud proclamations of moral purity, its leadership has consistently had supreme difficulty living up to its hype, especially lately. In the most recent in a series of fundie Christian sex scandals, Gary M. Aldridge, senior pastor of Thorington Road Baptist Church for the past 15 years, not only wasn’t able to live a morally pure life – he wasn’t able to die in a morally pure way, either.Montgomery, AL Major Bobby Bright had hinted that something unorthodox was up after Aldridge’s body was found this past June, suggesting that the pastor might have been the victim of foul play.

A representative for the Montgomery County police department had refused to discuss the matter other than to say that church members had become concerned when Aldridge went missing for several days, and to state that dental records and an autopsy would be required before the body, which had been discovered in the man’s home by a parishioner wondering why he wasn’t leading church services, could be positively identified and its cause of death determined.

The church’s website, which hasn’t been updated since shortly after the death, begs “the media and community to be respectful to the facts of the event. At this point there is very little information. Please refrain from speculation until the authorities handling the case reveal the facts.”

Well, the facts are in – and chances are excellent that those close to Aldridge will not be promoting them.

According to The Smoking Gun, the facts about Aldridge’s death are plenty sordid. While some will likely not be shocked to learn that yet another man who promoted a sexually and socially ultra conservative point of view had a few skeletons in his closet, most will be surprised by the complex and extreme nature of those skeletons.

The Liberty University graduate and one-time dean of the now-also-dead university founder Jerry Falwell’s school passed from this world as a result of what is being euphemistically called an “accidental mechanical asphyxia.”

Those in the world of openly kinky sex call it autoerotic asphyxiation.

It appears that Aldridge was alone at the time of his tragic play session gone bad, which is something those who admit to their sexual experimentations generally warn against for precisely the reasons that brought about his death. Hogtied and wearing two complete wet suits including face mask, diving gloves, slippers, a head mask, and rubber underwear and suspenders – the 51-year-old breath play enthusiast also had a condom clad dildo wedged inside of his ass; facts that the family friendly local Montgomery Advertiser chose to omit from its reporting of the sad event. He was bound with a combination of two ties, five leather belts, and 11 nylon straps.

Dr. Bob Miller of Liberty University told the press in June that Aldridge was well loved by university students. Whether that love will continue now that the truth about the man’s most intimate desires has been made public is yet to be seen. Likewise unknown is where the pastor purchased his dildo, given that the sale of sex toys within his home state of Alabama is illegal except for medical purposes.