American Idol to American Role Model!

The little girls want to look like Britney Spears in their halter-tops and short skirts. The boys want to be just like their favorite athlete, who these days have enough tattoos and piercings to last an entire street gang for a year. And America wonders why our rates of teen-pregnancy, drug use, and dropouts are so high.

Role models are an interesting concept. In our society it seems, that there is confusion between role model and sex symbol. It seems that the people we idolize or make our role models are not necessarily people that we look up to as human beings, rather they are people we want to be or want to be with (No woman in the Western World can argue that Brad Pitt will be hot when he is ninety!).

Who do the kids have anymore? All of the role models of the past have sold themselves over to cults or sold themselves out to fame; until now.

It’s time to meet someone that parents will want their kids to admire. Clay Aiken is a breath of fresh air. With his squeaky clean image and good southern boy values what is not to love?

Since the beginning of his rise to fame Clay has remained true to himself. Always being the same person whether the cameras are on or off Clay captured the hearts of American men and women alike. A devout Baptist who is known to be a momma’s boy, Clay tops it all off with his passion for children with disabilities.

So whatever happened to that time when kids wanted to be their mom’s and dad’s? Now you are more likely to find a teenager searching for Madonna (“Esther”) at the Kabbalah Center than sitting in the church pew with their family.

It’s no secret that Clay has developed a following, and no matter what these fans (dubbed “claymates”) are searching for at his concerts they leave getting a little bit more than they bargained for. Nightly, during his summer tour Clay came out on stage in a white suit (and some never make it passed his appearance) to sing the cover of a song done by Christian Pop Group Avalon. As the words to the powerful ballad “You Were There” came forth from his lips hands began to rise in worship of God. Clay has said that he sings this song for himself and God and that the audience just happens to get to hear it.

This man has got to be to good to be true, there has got to be something on him that people are dying to leak. He has an illegitimate child somewhere (because what twenty five year old man is still a virgin?), he has drug problem, he has a sever alcohol addiction… something. Despite these accusations, he always has a powerful faith based defense. “WWJD” bracelet aside, this man is for real.

Maybe it is not that he is too good to be true but rather that he is exactly what America needs at this point. The mom’s love him as much as the daughters, as much as the sons, as much as the fathers and the grandmas.

Maybe true admiration can be found not in the Kabbalah Center but in the testimony of Clay Aiken who has truly gone from “American Idol” to American Role Model.

To Clay, if he ever does get to read this, “thank you.” Thank you for having the courage to stand up for your faith and to give credit where credit is due, no matter who might be watching.