Tulsa pastor arrested on lewdness charge

Tulsa pastor arrested on lewdness  charge
January 05, 2006

An executive committee member of the  Southern Baptist Convention was
arrested on a lewdness charge for 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.

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)