Anti-Gay Pastor Caught On Grindr Told Gay Teen He Was Going To Hell, Should Commit Suicide, Says Mom

A Michigan pastor under fire for being gay but publicly attacking homosexuality is accused by a parishioner of telling her depressed gay son to kill himself. 

Earlier this week the gay blog Queerty broke the news that a married Christian pastor in Midland, Michigan, had been caught on Grindr, a social networking app used mostly by gay and bisexual men to chat with and meet other men, often for sex. Queerty posted screenshots of chats with a man who turned out to be Reverend Matthew Makela of St. John’s Lutheran Church and School, and says Makela admitted he was the person in the images.

Makela, a father of five, resigned from the church.

Now, a parishioner of Pastor Makela’s is accusing him of telling her gay teen son that he was going to hell because he is gay, so he should kill himself.

“If he’s going to hell for being gay then he might as well commit suicide,” Jennifer Kish says Makela told her depressed son when he was 17.

Stunningly, Reverend Makela not only advocated for the suicide of Kish’s son, but then took his battle against him to the public, attacking Kish as well, she charges.

“Kish said the pastor also became vocal on social media about how he felt her son being gay was wrong and that as a parent she shouldn’t support him,” WNEM reports. “She said she confronted pastor Makela about the message he was sending her son and every other young gay person.”

The Grindr chat images show Mikela saying, “I love making out naked,” “Oral and massage,” “And i top,” “Also love to cuddle.” They also show Mikela posing with out a shirt and with his underwear pulled down low.

But Queerty also posted images of comments Makela made on Facebook attacking same-sex marriage and the “transgender movement,” and comments the pastor made comparing being gay to alcoholism.

“If Makela made even one LGBT kid at St. John’s ‘Christ-based’ elementary school, their parents, friends, family or anyone who ever stepped foot in the church feel like being true to yourself is shameful (and it seems all too likely that he did), then we’re glad to share his hypocrisy with the world,” Queerty wrote.

 

Image: Screenshot via WNEM
Hat tip: Joe Jervis