Baptist Minister Arrested For Soliciting

Reverend Lonnie Latham, a senior Southern Baptist leader and pastor, was arrested for soliciting sex from a police officer posing as a male prostitute recently.

Now on the face of it it is rather amusing to see some guy that has previously spoken out against gay marriage and homosexuality getting caught in this manner. If there's one thing I can't stand it is hypocrisy of this kind. But I think that this story raises some deeper issues.

First of all, why are we paying police officers to pose as prostitutes? It's called entrapment, they are deliberately creating a situation of temptation, that might otherwise not have existed. Maybe Reverend Latham thought this cop was cute, perhaps no other male prostitute would have interested him that night. In other words were it not for the deliberate acts of this cop it is possible that no crime would have been committed.

Secondly, I was under the impression that people were innocent until proven guilty in this country. I was clearly mistaken. This man has been publicly identified by the media as soliciting a fake male prostitute for sex. It doesn't matter if he is later found not guilty at trial it is likely his life will be ruined. He will no doubt lose his job, his position on the board of the Southern Baptist Church, his family, his friends and possibly much more. In other words the trial is largely irrelevant at this point, this man's life has been ruined and he is technically at this point an innocent man.

I just don't understand why such time, money and effort is spent trying to stamp out prostitution. It's clear that it is never going to go away, and the fact that it is illegal only makes it more difficult on the vulnerable who are sucked into this profession.

This story is just sad for all concerned. I hate to see our tax dollars squandered in this manner to appease the radicals who want to legislate their brand of morality.