Some things cannot be sugar coated. People who are like Captain Kangaroo cannot make everything right, no matter how hard they try. Camelot is a fairy tale. Captain Kangaroo does not live in a real world. Yes, it is an OK world to visit briefly, but we all live in the real world, and it is sometimes painful and harsh.
Clowns belong in a circus.
They are fun in that atmosphere. But out of context, clowns scare some people. At the least, they are not convincing as solutions to real problems. Churches cannot compete with Six Flags. We need not try.