An interesting way to pastor

While there have historically been religious sects that openly incorporated sexual activity as part of their religious activities, Southern Baptists aren’t usually considered among that number. Which makes the claim …

“I was in the area pastoring to police.”

… a bit odd, given that …

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.

Actually, involuntary chortling aside, it’s actually pretty sad. Latham has been a supporter of Southern Baptists measures to befriend gays to the end of convincing them they can go straight if “if they accept Jesus Christ as their savior and reject their ‘sinful, destructive lifestyle.'” Obviously Latham’s got some personal problems here, and a lot of internal conflicts over his own sexuality and his efforts to reject same — which efforts, in his case, have indeed become destructive.

(via Les)