O.K.

I've often theorized here that homosexuality gets singled out for such fervent condemnation by many religious conservatives because it's the safest target.

Condemning anything as a sin is a dangerous business. You get up on a soapbox and start railing against envy, sloth, gluttony, greed, wrath, lust or pride and eventually people will begin to realize that you're very well acquainted with your subject matter.

The only safe "sin" to preach against is one you can be sure you'll never commit — never even be tempted to commit. So, if you're straight, you preach against homosexuality. You can further protect yourself by portraying it as the worst possible sin. That way when you get caught doing whatever it is you will inevitably get caught doing, you can argue that at least you're not as bad as those wretched homosexuals.

So that's one theory, one possibility. These straight men rail against the supposed sins of homosexuals for the same reason that they rail against the supposed sins of women — because they're neither homosexuals nor women and it's always safer to condemn others.

An alternate theory takes kind of the opposite approach to considering why this topic receives such disproportionate attention from certain members of the religious right. This theory suggests that perhaps these preachers doth protest too much. And once in a while a story comes along that seems to support this theory.

Like, for instance, this story from Tulsa, Okla.:

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. …

When [Latham] left jail, he said:

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

The arrest took place in the parking lot of the Habana Inn, which is in an area where the public has complained about male prostitutes flagging down cars, Becker said. The plainclothes officers was investigating these complaints. …

Latham is one of four Southern Baptist Convention executive committee members from Oklahoma. …

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."'

Elsewhere in Oklahoma, the marriage between two women as upheld by the top court of the Cherokee Nation, Reuters reports. Members of the Tribal Council had sued to overrule the legitimacy of the marriage, saying it could damage the tribe's reputation:

"Members of the Tribal Council, like private Cherokee citizens, must demonstrate a specific particularized harm," the court ruled. "In the present case, the Council members fail to demonstrate the requisite harm."

In other words, the Cherokee Tribunal asked, "Who does it hurt if these two women get married?"

The opponents of the marriage didn't have an answer to that question. Neither does the Southern Baptist Convention or, well, anyone else. So what's the problem?

(Both links via Buzzflash.)