Anti-gay pastor arrested for...

...soliciting a policeman

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 said:

"I was set up. I was in the area pastoring to police."

I don't think "pastoring" is what he had in mind. Maybe "ministering" in the loose definition of the word...

Pastor Latham is an outspoken critic of same-sex marriage. He's also advocated befriending gays and lesbians with the goal of convincing them that they can become straight if they accept Jesus and reject their "sinful, destructive lifestyle."