They always say that the ones who are the most homophobic are harboring the deepest gay feelings themselves. Time and time again we’ve seen this to be the case and recently it happened again! An anti-gay pastor was just found sending messages on Grindr. The pastor who did the deed was Matt Makela of St.John’s Lutheran Church in Midland, Michigan. When a pastor is found on Grindr, news travels fast.
The church has been (obviously) doing everything they can to hide the news but the internet gives nobody peace. I’m assuming that Makela did not leave his post voluntarily. This pastor loves to put it all on social media and The Daily Dot has found some of his deleted posts that go against “transgender movement.” Here is one of them that have since been deleted:
“The transgender movement is going to assist opportunistic sickos in preying upon children and others. How can business owners and the authorities prove who is a man who identifies as woman and a man who wants to prey upon women and girls in the locker room?”
This message seems to be a complete opposite from the screenshots of messages Makela sent on Grindr. One of them being, “I love making out naked. Oral and massage. And i top. Also love to cuddle.”
There is no problem with being gay, sexually open and exploring online hook-ups and dating. However, there is a problem when you harass, bully and openly oppose others who are and then do the same. As the old cliché saying goes, “When you point your finger at someone, three fingers are pointing back at you.”
Makela is not the first anti-gay to be found posting message on Grindr, in North Dakota a Conservative politician named Randy Boehning was also found posting messages on the dating app. Boehning was known for voting against gay rights on multiple occasions. Eventually he owned up to his secret activities and came out as bisexual.
The damage control that St.John’s is doing is running away. They are basically insinuating that those of the church should ignore everything they hear regarding the situation. Below is an announcement made on their website, which is currently down:
“To make matters worse, though, 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.
I write this to you to warn you that you may be confronted with the details of the sin, and to remind you that sin is never pretty. 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, but the internet and age of communication being what it is, I have no way of guaranteeing that you will not come across this information in some way.
A few thoughts on how to proceed:
-Don’t panic. This changes nothing. Matt is still forgiven and he is still loved, and we will do what we can to stand by him and the family as they face this spiteful attack of shame. God is bigger than this and will see us through.
-Don’t respond. Those who are trying to shake up the congregation are doing so, at least in part, to generate traffic to their website. If you click on a website to see, or respond to what is being said—even in a positive way—you are only rewarding those who are trying to shame the Makelas.
-Please know that the leadership of St. John’s will be forthright with any information the members need to have. However, we do not intend to use the internet as the primary means of communication at this point.”
Wow! One day the world will be accepting and these situations will no longer be known. Hopefully Makela sees that he can have allies and use his social media presence to help a community that he secretly wants to be a part of.
