Posted on 01/04/2006 4:32:56 PM PST by apoc
Tulsa Pastor Arrested In OKC On Lewdness Charge
OKLAHOMA CITY -- An executive committee member of the Southern Baptist Convention was arrested on a lewdness charge for propositioning a plainclothes policeman outside a hotel, 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 Capt. Jeffrey Becker said. Latham was released on $500 bail Wednesday afternoon.
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.
When he left jail, he told Oklahoma City television station KFOR:
"I was set up. I was in the area pastoring to police."
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.
Wouldn't it have made more sense for him to say he was ministering to prostitutes?
Good thing they reminded us.
The folks that say that aren't Biblical Scholars. They're faggots in the cloth trying to rot the institution from the inside.
What exactly is lacking in the story. From everything I have heard about the Habana Inn you are only there for one reason and it ain't sleeping.
Was money involved, or was this simply asking a willing participant (or in this case, someone pretending to be willing) to later engage in private sex? If it's the latter, then this doesn't sit right with me. It sounds like an infringement of basic rights of speech and association.
PUH-LEEZE lay off the nonsensical "phobic" tag. Classic liberal tactic: If you don't approve of something, you must be afraid of it, enough so in fact to warrant a mental health kind of label. Here's reality: There's absolutely nothing wrong with disapproving of homosexual behavior. Even if you take a purely secular view and ignore the moral aspects, it's quite possibly the most destructive behavior on the planet. It's that behavior that is worthy of a mental health label, not disapproval thereof.
As for this pastor, if he's guilty, he's a hypocrite, but also remember that Christians don't claim to be perfect. Just forgiven. If he did it, he needs help and I hope he gets it. If he was set up, I hope his name is cleared.
MM
Well, I wasn't going to say that, but I'm certainly not going to disagree, either. I think you are right.
hey, at least he wasn't engaged in 'tribal gaming' !
Excellent post and so right on.
A minister with a 2005 Mercedes? Not only does this NOT sound like a setup it sounds like it is true.
good catch!!
none of the ministers I know drive a mercedes.......
"I was set up. I was in the area pastoring to police."
First oral sex "wasn't having sexual relations". Now, it's "pastoring".
Nor do any I know. I have heard about some crooks who pose as ministers who drive expensive cars. Some of whom are still supported by their braindead congregations.
Yes, he has a 2005 Mercedes, and a lovely wife with a good job.
Maybe "had" should be the new verb wrt both.
"Maybe he is telling the truth.
"
Probably not. Sadly, stories like this one are all too common. The cops aren't really out busting people for "pastoring." "Pandering" is more like it.
Sad business. But one errant minister does not condemn all leaders of his denomination.
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