The Workday Liberal

We are witness to yet another example of a prominent member of society who uses his bully pulpit (literally in this case) to slam around the so called homosexual agenda, while living a life that is quite distinctly non traditional. As noted in the story from KOCO in Oklahoma city:

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.

...When he left jail, he told Oklahoma City television station KFOR:

"I was set up. I was in the area pastoring to police."

...He has also spoken out against same-sex marriage and in support of a Southern Baptist Convention directive urging its 42,000 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."'

This could be a great opportunity for some witty banter in the comments to this post about how we could read the whole "pastoring to police" line from pastor Latham. But there are two points I would like to make about this story.

First: I as a good liberal christian am simply MORTIFIED that my professed christian brothers and sisters of the conservative persuasion consistently display a lack of tolerance for gays and lesbians. The idea that Jesus Christ is the answer to a supposed aberrant lifestyle completely disregards the fact that humans do not choose their sexuality. I certainly do not remember waking up one day and choosing to be straight. That is simply what I am! I am what I am, you are what you are, and thats the way we were created. The thought of being anything other than the what I am is completely unimaginable, and I'm sure that is the way it is for (most of) the rest of us. The next time some intolerant nitwit starts going off about gays, just ask them if they remember the day they chose to be straight.

Second: This follows close on the heels of the recall of the mayor of Spokane Washington mayor Jim West, who was tossed from office after disclosure of the use of his office trappings to lure gay men into sexual trysts. Mr. West has a long political pedigree that included a litany of anti gay legislation while in the Washington state congress. We also have the case of U.S. Rep Ed Schrock who co sponsored the Federal Marriage Amendment aimed at disallowing gay marriage and also notably opposed basic rights for homosexuals such as protection from work place discrimination. He was caught using a phone service that arranged sexual trysts between gay men. Just search google with keywords 'anti gay hypocrite' and enjoy the hours of reading material that follows.

One really must wonder, following these examples of right wing nutjobs being exposed in a gay lifestyle, how long it will take until society as a whole considers the rest of the anti-gay blowhards to perhaps have a bit of a closet issue of their own? Would that not be the height of irony. The right wing anti gay noise machine silenced for fear of being perceived as homosexual.