A prominent former Southern Baptist pastor was cleared of criminal charges in a sex-solicitation case March 7.
An Oklahoma judge acquitted Lonnie Latham of asking an undercover male police officer to have sex. Latham had publicly supported Southern Baptist efforts to get gays to renounce their sexual orientation.
Latham's acquittal is not likely to appease his Baptist critics, however, since his attorneys did not prove he was not seeking gay sex with the policeman, only that his invitation was not a crime.
In January 2006 Oklahoma City police arrested Latham, who was the pastor of South Tulsa Baptist Church in Tulsa, Okla., on a charge of offering to engage in a sex act.
Initially, Latham reportedly claimed he had been set up and was actually ministering to police in the area. However, he soon admitted he had asked for sex and resigned from the church as well as from the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee and the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma's board of directors.