01/19/2006
Hypocritical anti-gay Oklahoma minister submits his resignation. Lonnie Latham, who earlier this month asked a police officer to accompany him to his hotel room for oral sex and was subsequently arrested, cited "personal reasons" for leaving his church. Latham has spoken out against same-sex marriage and in support of a Baptist directive that church members should befriend gays and lesbians in order to help them reject their "sinful, destructive lifestyle." The lifestyle best exemplified by hypocritical Baptist pastors.
Posted 12:59 PM EST by Andy Towle in Elsewhere | Permalink
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Schaudenfreud.
Posted by: david | Jan 19, 2006 2:18:11 PM
I think he's sad and pathetic, but I keep wondering, why is asking a man to have oral sex in a private motel room illegal? Has Oklahoma not yet yeard of Lawrence v. Texas?
Posted by: Sam | Jan 19, 2006 2:22:26 PM
It's illegal when you offer the guy money. He offered the undercover cop money in exchange for oral sex. That's prostitution, and it's illegal in most states.
Posted by: Liam | Jan 19, 2006 2:28:12 PM
He was probably arrested for soliciting a prostitute. I haven't read that in the articles that I have read about it - but you know, news is written to sell papers and ads, not to report facts. It's more scandalous that he's a gay.
Posted by: david | Jan 19, 2006 2:28:27 PM
What Liam said. This article says "offering to engage in an act of lewdness" so - you know - in Oklahoma that could be an offer to watch "The Gilmore Girls."
Posted by: david | Jan 19, 2006 2:30:25 PM
It's illegal when you offer the guy money. He offered the undercover cop money in exchange for oral sex.
Posted by: Liam | Jan 19, 2006 2:30:25 PM
Sorry for the double posting.
Posted by: Liam | Jan 19, 2006 2:31:32 PM
I wonder how much a hummer goes for at the Habana Inn? I always got mine for free.
Gross.
Posted by: Brian | Jan 19, 2006 2:50:32 PM
I turned down a chance for one at the Habana a few years ago
Posted by: Donald | Jan 19, 2006 3:08:36 PM
Send him to Nigeria for punishment.
Posted by: VINCENT | Jan 19, 2006 3:48:47 PM
After the rash of scandals that plagued the Catholic Church recently, most people ask how such an old-boy religion can keep from splintering under the weight of it's 'hypocrisies.' I think that most people underestimate the flexibility and the genius that is built into the workings of the catholic faith. It has endured over 2000 years for a reason. Despite many factions, dissent, heretics, corruptions, it has evolved... and will likely endure another 2000 years.
I don't want to play apologist for the faith, but I want to enlighten. I want some of you to know why parasites like this creep from Oklahoma are allowed to preach in the house of God. In the end, maybe you will appreciate the sophistication of the 'adversary'and why it is useless to keep attacking priests when we have our best weapons already at our disposal.
Some of you who may remember 'The Power and the Glory' by Graham Greene in highschool may have marvelled at how the drunken whoring whoreson of a priest was still able to perform the transubstantiation (turning bread and wine into the body and blood of christ) and redeem himself in the end. How dare such a filthy human being pressume to show us the way to salvation! The novel is an examination of the Rite of Apostolic Succession -- basically the raison-d-etre of the fraternity that 'makes' new priests and ensures that the authentic authority vested in St. Peter is handed down to the current generation of men. The thinking is simple yet profound:
*The power of God is greater and purer than sin... is untouchable by sin. Is NOT OF THIS WORLD... and is therefore removed from any other act perfored by the human vessel (the priest). At the exact moment when the priest turns bread into the body, he peforms the act as if he were Jesus himself (because of Apostolic Succession). The true miracle isnt that we then get to eat a piece of flesh. the true miracle is that a gathering can witness how one man is able use the direct authority of God to clean himself entirely for that one instant. Everything evil kaput. IT is then dangled in front of our eyes. the flesh is just the proof. waaaay more enticing than 'Turkish Delight.'
The Genius of this philosophy is that suckin dick on his time off is NOT inconsistent with his role as a 'vessel.' He can kill, rape, abuse, rob, fellate, sodomize, but when it comes time to stand up on that altar and perform magic, God's power takes him out of himself and uses him as the perfect vessel -- simply because he is the direct beneficiary of the authority vested in St. Paul ("You are my rock (Pietro) and upon you i shall build my church"). He is the heir of Peter.Countless like him have existed for two thousand years.
So, If we presume to challenge the church on its ' moral grounds,' using slings like 'hypocrisy' and 'inconsistecy' and 'un-christian' ... FORGET IT. These priests are acting within their allotted philosophical loophole. Totaly consistent. And this is just one of the many loopholes allowed tacitly in the Catholic Canon. If we, as gay men and women, want to argue on common morality and logic, we will not get far. Arguing to allow condoms in Africa based on logic is uselss. We must argue in the arena that is available to us -- technology, media. Keep those gay reality shows coming. more Brokeback mountains, more fabulous fags on TV. more gay red carpet commentators. But we also need Gay Unicef reps. Gay UN Goodwill ambassadors (Paging Kevin Sapcey). Gay Peace Corps. not just the fabulous jobs. We must work like the devil in order to free the Love of God from those who would reserve it for themselves.
Posted by: Antonio | Jan 19, 2006 4:07:48 PM
Antonio, you rock. Right on.
Posted by: Brian | Jan 19, 2006 4:57:13 PM
haha. St. Peter, not St. Paul (paragraph 5). Although in truth, most scholars agree that St. Paul got to Rome first and was more important to the disemmination of the early chruch teachings (through epistles). In the early century of Christianity, the disciples of Paul and Peter were NOT GETTING ALONG. WE could easily have ended up with St. Paul's BAsilica. Sorry for the slip.
Brian, you're cool.
Posted by: Antonio | Jan 19, 2006 5:05:49 PM
Antonio,
You might find the website Religious-Tolerance.org very interesting on the subject of Religion and Homosexuality. It is very enlightening (as well as credible) on this subject. Some of the white wash by the religious right is down right despicable. There has been a definite conspiracy by the religious right to re-write the bible and this site shows the proof. As an example did you know that Kind David (that's correct, King David) was gay? It's written that way in the ancient texts, honest.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bibl.htm
Posted by: Robert In WeHo | Jan 19, 2006 9:47:07 PM
Lol, you hear about a few ministers out of the 1000s in this country, and you think thats a normal lifestyle for them? Maybe I misquoted you, but if so thats really as small minded as the people you attempt to condemn!
Posted by: KIm | Jan 20, 2006 4:09:19 PM
sweetie, kim. outing gay seminary sex as 'normal' has nothing to do with it (although seminaries really ARE hotbeds of homosexual activity). condemnation has nothing to do with it either. We are not attacking priests that 'stray.' It's about examining institutions that profess to do right by the world at large.. sometimes with oppressive measures... and yet refuse to come clean about between their doctrine and their practices. Why do they not let WOMEN practice as ministers for instance? when there are lots of aprcryphal texts that suggest MAry MAgdalene was in fact one of THE FIRST DISCIPLES of Christ? that women in the early church were active?
Wouldnt you want to question what the heck has happened from that first 100 years to the present?
DO not fear to ask for enlightenment. It is your due.
Posted by: Antonio | Jan 20, 2006 6:12:37 PM