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| Anti-gay Baptist preacher arrested for lewd conduct with male |
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WASHINGTON, Jan. 6, 2006 -- It was reported yesterday, Thursday, Jan. 5, that Rev. Lonnie Latham, a member of the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention and senior pastor of the South Tulsa First Baptist Church, was arrested for offering to engage in "an act of lewdness" with a male undercover police officer. Matt Foreman of the National Lesbian and Gay Task Force commented, “The incident occurred at the Habana Inn in Oklahoma City, which describes itself as 'the Southwest's Largest Gay Resort.' Rev. Latham denied the charges to reporters as he left the Oklahoma County jail and claimed, 'I was set up. I was in the area pastoring...' This isn't the first time he's been in the area, having received a traffic violation there a few years back. “Rev. Latham has been an outspoken opponent of equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. And, of course, in recent years the Southern Baptist Convention - the nation's largest Protestant denomination - has become increasingly homophobic and aligned itself with the worst elements of the far right in working to stop marriage equality for gay people. Rev. Latham supported a directive urging its 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'. “These kinds of situations involving anti-gay political and religious leaders being caught, literally, with their pants down are hardly uncommon. My instinctual reaction has always been one of smug satisfaction – ‘serves the damn hypocrite right.’ “Maybe I'm getting old, or maybe it's lingering good will from being with my family in Wyoming over the holidays, or maybe it's thinking about Brokeback Mountain too much, but today I only feel sadness for Rev. Latham and his family. Homophobia - directed at others and at one's own very being - is the real perpetrator here.” |
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