Anti-Gay Michigan Pastor Outed Seeking Sex On Grindr
By Christy Strawser
MIDLAND (CBS Detroit) An associate pastor known for anti-gay and transgender posts on social media was outed yesterday for seeking sex on gay-themed app Grindr.
Identifying himself as a "top," Matthew Makela allegedly wrote that he likes to cuddle, have oral sex, make out naked and massage men. He posted nearly nude bathroom mirror selfies on the app.
When confronted by the evidence, St. John's Lutheran Church of Midland accepted his resignation as associate pastor, and informed parishioners through a letter that Makela had "sinned."
The church then deleted their social media feeds, apparently to ward off discussion of the situation.
The church's phone also just rings as of Wednesday morning, with no one answering and no ability to leave a message.
Explaining the situation to parishioners, Rev. Daniel Kempin wrote that he had accepted Makela's resignation and added: "To make matters worse, the details of sin that have been kept confidential are being posted online by those who seek to do harm to the Makela family and to St. John's.
"This is taking an already difficult situation and making it even more painful… The facebook pages associated with St. John's have been taken down in an attempt to remove the opportunity for malicious posters to have access to St. John's members…"
He urged parishioners to pray for Makela and his family.
Here are Makela's Grindr posts that were outed by gay Website Queerly.
After Queerly's stories, Makela's biography was quickly removed from the St. John's Lutheran Church Website. Previously, he had been described as an associate pastor with three daughters and two sons who enjoys, "family, music, home improvement, gardening and landscaping, and sports."
On personal Facebook pages, Makela had reportedly likened homosexuality to alcoholism and written things like "the transgender movement is going to assist opportunistic sickos in preying upon children and others."
