c. 2006 Religion News Service

Authorities to Decide on Church Leader Who Allegedly Sought Sex

TULSA, Okla. (RNS) Authorities say they will decide this week whether to press formal charges against a prominent Southern Baptist leader arrested after allegedly inviting an undercover male police officer to come to his hotel room for sex.

The Rev. Lonnie Latham resigned as pastor of South Tulsa Baptist Church on Thursday (Jan. 5), two days after his arrest on a complaint of offering to engage in an act of lewdness.

He has also resigned from the 82-member executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, which helps conduct the business of the country’s largest Protestant denomination, with 16 million members.

Oklahoma City police allege Latham invited an undercover male police officer to come to his hotel room for sex. Police said the officer was in the neighborhood investigating complaints that male prostitutes were flagging down cars.

Debra Forshee, with the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office, said that prosecutors would decide this week whether to file charges. A lewdness charge carries a penalty of up to one year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

Latham, 60, had been an outspoken critic of same-sex marriage and supported the Southern Baptist Convention’s position that Baptist churches should befriend gays and lesbians, and urge them to reject their “sinful and destructive lifestyle.”

Contacted by phone, Latham said he could not discuss the matter, but he prepared a statement that was read Sunday to an overflow crowd at the South Tulsa Baptist Church service.

In it, he said he has been sustained by the cards, calls and e-mails from the congregation.

“I thank you for the love and encouragement you have shown us, not only before this incident, but also afterward,” he said. “We will always love you. Our prayer is for you to continue to be the great ministry you are. Your continued prayers in support of Sandra (his wife) and me will be greatly appreciated.”

The Rev. Anthony Jordan, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, told the congregation Sunday that the church would survive because its “foundation is Jesus Christ” and not a man.

“Lonnie was and is a very close friend,” he said. “Just like you, I have wept. I have grieved, I have felt the brokenness of my own heart.”

He described Latham as a man with a broken heart who has turned to God for forgiveness.

_ Bill Sherman

Settlement Offered on Eruv, an Orthodox Jewish Religious District

(RNS) Under a proposed settlement that could end a five-year legal battle, the Bergen County, N.J., borough of Tenafly has reached an agreement with a group of Orthodox Jews that would allow a symbolic religious district.

The eruv district, a symbolic area bounded by telephone wires and utility poles marked with plastic strips called “lechis,” allows observant Orthodox Jews to do physical tasks otherwise banned on the Sabbath, such as carrying a child or pushing a baby stroller in public.

“The eruv enhances the experience of the Sabbath,” said Mariette Warner, a modern Orthodox Jew who lives outside the eruv boundary. She said she cannot invite many families from her synagogue to her home on the Sabbath because mothers cannot push strollers to her house.

The proposed settlement comes five years after the borough council ordered the Tenafly Eruv Association to take down the plastic strips from utility poles in the public right-of-way, sparking the legal dispute.

A federal appeals court eventually ruled against the borough in a case that weighed constitutional issues of separation of church and state, religious freedom and free speech, and brought national attention to the divided residents of Tenafly, a town of 14,000.

Under the proposed settlement, subject to a borough council vote on Jan. 24, the borough would also pay $325,000 in attorney fees to the Tenafly Eruv Association, said Tenafly Mayor Peter Rustin.

The borough also would not be allowed to pursue related legal action against Verizon or Cablevision, which permitted the Jewish group to use utility poles.

The settlement gives the eruv association the ability to expand to whatever area of town it thinks appropriate, said Robert Sugarman, an attorney who represented the Eruv Association.

Experts say the Tenafly case is unusual, noting that there are eruvs in Washington, D.C., Manhattan and hundreds of other cities across the United States.

“Generally these kinds of arrangements are totally cooperative,” said Nathan Diament of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

_ Ana M. Alaya

Survey: Majorities Support Decision-Making for Terminally Ill

(RNS) An overwhelming majority of white Catholics and Protestants support laws endorsing the right of terminally ill patients to decide whether medical care should keep them alive, a new study by the Pew Research Center has found.

Ninety-one percent of white Catholics and 84 percent of white Protestants support legislation that would allow a patient or his or her closest family member to decide if medical action should be taken to prolong the patient’s life, according to the study released Jan. 5.

The poll results come less than a year after the Terri Schiavo case sparked end-of-life debates across the nation, with many growing angry when government and medical officials attempted to intervene.

Since a similar poll in 1990, the percentage of individuals believing the patient and family should control their own medical destiny jumped by 11 points for white Catholics and 4 percentage points for white Protestants. The survey did not provide breakdowns for other ethnic groups within religions.

The poll also found nearly three in 10 Americans (29 percent) now have a living will, and nearly seven in 10 (69 percent) have spoken to their spouses about their wishes for end-of-life medical care, up from 51 percent in 1990.

The nationwide study was conducted Nov. 9-27, sampling 1,500 adults with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.

_ Jason Kane

Conservative Anglicans Gather in Alabama to Focus on Evangelism

(RNS) Birmingham, Ala., hosts a gathering this week of 800 conservative Anglicans, including African and Asian archbishops who have warned about a possible schism if the U.S. Episcopal Church does not renounce its approval of gay bishops and blessing of same-sex unions.

The Anglican Mission in America, a splinter group that includes many ex-Episcopalians, will have a conference Wednesday (Jan. 11) through Sunday. Organizers say as many as nine Anglican archbishops, or primates, from various countries plan to attend.

The meeting will open with a service led by Archbishop Datuk Yong Ping Chung of Malaysia.

Church growth and mission work are the main topics of seminars, said the Rev. John Richardson, host priest and the rector of St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Mountain Brook, Ala.

Richardson said he expects the sexual morality issues to arise “only indirectly” at the conference.

But he said many of those participating are concerned about the direction U.S. Episcopal Church leaders are taking. The Anglican Mission in America “is addressing a crisis in faith and leadership in the Episcopal Church,” Richardson said. “It’s building Christ-centered and mission-minded churches.”

The debate over homosexuality will likely heat up within the Episcopal Church this year with the approach of its General Convention June 13-21, the church’s first governing meeting since an openly gay bishop was approved in 2003. The approval of openly gay Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire has been heavily criticized by conservative Episcopalians in the United States and by Anglican leaders overseas.

“The controversy remains,” said Bishop John Rucyahana of Rwanda, who played a key role in the founding of the Anglican Mission in America. The mission has used the authority of African bishops to ordain American bishops. They, in turn, oversee conservative Anglicans who have defected from the Episcopal Church.

This week’s Anglican Mission meeting focuses on evangelism, he said. “We are very much interested in Gospel preaching, not church politics,” Rucyahana said. “We need to reach people for Jesus Christ.”

The Episcopal Church, with 2.4 million members, is the U.S. province of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, which traces its roots to the Church of England. A vast number of Anglicans are in Africa, including 17 million in Nigeria.

The Anglican Mission has about 85 member churches.

_ Greg Garrison

Quote of the Day: Mormon Elder M. Russell Ballard

(RNS) “The safest place in the world for 19-21-year-old young men and 21-year-old young women is in the service of the Lord in the mission field, scattered out over the four corners of the Earth.”

_ Elder M. Russell Ballard, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, reacting to the recent deaths of three missionaries. One was shot Jan. 2 in Virginia and two died Friday (Jan. 6) in a New Zealand automobile accident.

MO/PH END RNS