The Rev. Gary Aldridge was the pastor at the Montgomery, Alabama, Thorington Road Baptist Church.  He was also a student of and a Dean at the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University.  The folks at the Fighting Fundamental Forums note that the Aldridge’s family was away from the home at the time and are considering whether Aldridge was murdered. 

“More details are coming out and he was indeed murdered at his home in Alabama while his wife & child were in North Carolina visiting a sick relative,” says one Sly Fox (Master of Fundamentalism). 

track_crazy wonders “This is very sad … But there is something not being told about this story to protect the family or the community.” 

Well, fundies, yes, indeed, there are many details that you’re not being told.  Good ol’ Godly Gary had a little bit of a hobby involving wetsuits, yet has never scuba-dived in his life.  Angelic Aldridge was really good with knots, despite not being a Boy Scout Master.  Let’s just say ol’ Gary had not only a “wide stance”, but was also, shall we say, anal retentive.

OCTOBER 8–An Alabama minister who died in June of “accidental mechanical asphyxia” was found hogtied and wearing two complete wet suits, including a face mask, diving gloves and slippers, rubberized underwear, and a head mask, according to an autopsy report. Investigators determined that Rev. Gary Aldridge’s death was not caused by foul play and that the 51-year-old pastor of Montgomery’s Thorington Road Baptist Church was alone in his home at the time he died (while apparently in the midst of some autoerotic undertaking). While the Montgomery Advertiser, which first obtained the autopsy records, reported on Aldridge’s two wet suits, the family newspaper chose not to mention what police discovered inside the minister’s rubber briefs.

What they found in the minister’s rubber briefs was something that (believe it or not) is illegal to possess in Alabama, even if you are a preacher.

(From the autopsy report): The decedent is clothed in a diving wet suit, a face mask which has a single vent for breathing, a rubberized head mask having an opening for the mouth and eyes, a second rubberized suit with suspenders, rubberized male underwear, hands and feet have diving gloves and slippers.  There are numerous straps and cords restraining the decedent.  There is a leather belt about the midriff.  There is a series of ligatures extending from the hands to the feet.  The hands are bound behind the back.  The feet are tied to the hands.  There are nylon ligatures holding these in place with leather straps about the wrists and ankles.  there are plastic cords also tied about the hands and feet with a single plastic cord extending up to the head and surrounding the lower neck.  There is a dilso in the anus covered with a condom.

The US Supreme Court just rejected hearing a case that would’ve addressed the constitutionality of Alabama’s ban on sex toys.