OKLAHOMA CITY (ABP) — A Southern Baptist Convention leader was arrested Jan. 3 in Oklahoma City for offering to have sex with a male undercover police officer.
Police arrested Lonnie Latham, pastor of South Tulsa Baptist Church in Tulsa, Okla., on a charge of offering to engage in a lewd act. He resigned from the Tulsa church Jan. 5. Latham is a member of the SBC Executive Committee and has supported SBC efforts to get gays to renounce their sexual attractions.
Police officials said they had received several complaints about male prostitutes in the neighborhood around the Habana Inn, a hotel that advertises itself as “the Southwest's Largest Gay Resort,” in “the heart of Oklahoma City's gay district.”
A plainclothes officer investigating the complaints told police officials that, late on the evening of Jan. 3, Latham approached him at a nearby location and invited him back to another hotel — located near the Oklahoma Baptist Building — for oral sex. The pastor did not offer to exchange money for the act, according to police, and thus was arrested on the lewdness charge rather than solicitation.
According to Capt. Jeffrey Becker, an Oklahoma City Police spokesman, the Oklahoma County district attorney's office has agreed to prosecute Latham. Police also impounded Latham's 2005 Mercedes.
The Southern Baptist Convention and its leaders have, in recent years, regularly spoken out in opposition to homosexuality as an orientation, as well as against legalizing same-sex marriage and other gay civil rights. Latham has publicly supported the SBC effort to convince gays to “accept Jesus Christ as their savior and reject their sinful, destructive lifestyle.”
Latham also has served as an officer of the conservative Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, which has repeatedly passed resolutions opposing homosexuality and gay rights.
Latham was released from the Oklahoma County Jail on $500 bail Jan. 4. He did not return a phone message left at his home by an Associated Baptist Press reporter Jan. 5. However, multiple media outlets quoted Latham as saying, as he exited the jail, that he had been “set up” and that he had simply been ministering to people in the area when he was arrested.
“I was involved in a prayer ministry in that area, and I had a dialogue with police,” he said, according to the website of the Daily Oklahoman newspaper. “The officer made many suggestions.”
But, according to police officials, Latham made no mention of prayer, told the officer his name was “Luke,” and said he was from Dallas and worked frequently in Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
South Tulsa Baptist Church posted a statement on its website Jan. 6 that said Latham had resigned as pastor the previous day and “will not be returning to South Tulsa Baptist Church in any staff capacity.”
The statement also noted that the church “has a long history of sharing Christ's message of love and redemption to people from all walks of life,” and that “that same spirit of love will be one that we continue to show Dr. Latham and his family.”
According to the website, the church has an average Sunday-morning attendance of about 700 and has experienced significant growth since Latham became its pastor in 2002. Previously, he was the executive director of the Tulsa Metro Baptist Association.
Heidi Wilburn, spokesperson for the Oklahoma convention, released a statement saying the organization was “deeply grieved” over Latham's situation. “Our first concern is for his church and family,” the statement read. “As Christians we reach out to those who hurt; however, we fully support law enforcement in dealing with these matters. While we certainly do not condone this type of activity, we do continue to care and pray for Lonnie during this difficult time.”
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