News
2006-01-06
Tulsa pastor
arrested on lewdness charge
Antigay pastor
arrested in gay sex sting
A member of the
Southern Baptist Convention's executive committee
A member of the
Southern Baptist Convention's executive committee was
arrested on a lewdness charge, having been accused of
propositioning a plainclothes policeman outside a
hotel in Tulsa, Okla., police said.
Lonnie Latham, senior pastor at South Tulsa
Baptist Church, was booked into Oklahoma County Jail
Tuesday night on a misdemeanor charge of offering to
engage in an act of lewdness, police captain Jeffrey Becker
said. Latham was released on $500 bail Wednesday afternoon.
According to police, Latham, who has spoken out
against homosexuality, asked the officer to join him
in his hotel room for oral sex. Latham was arrested,
and his 2005 Mercedes automobile was impounded, Becker said.
Calls to Latham at his church were not immediately returned Wednesday.
The arrest took place in the parking lot of the
Habana Inn, which is in an area where the public has
complained about male prostitutes flagging down cars,
Becker said. The plainclothes officers was investigating
these complaints. The lewdness charge carries a
penalty of up to one year in jail and a $2,500 fine.
Latham is one of four Southern Baptist
Convention executive committee members from Oklahoma.
He spoke out last year against a measure, ultimately
approved by voters, to expand tribal gaming. He has also
spoken out against same-sex marriage and in support of a
Southern Baptist Convention directive urging its
42,000 churches to befriend gays and lesbians and try
to convince them that they can become heterosexual "if
they accept Jesus Christ as their savior and reject their
sinful, destructive lifestyle."
The Southern Baptist Convention is the nation's
largest Protestant denomination. (AP)
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