I'm sorry but I have no sympathy for the Church as it breeds the type of deception prevalent in this incident. It is the same mind set I grew up with as a member of a Missouri Synod based church. They do not allow women to preach, much less ordain them. Being LGBT, well, your on your own.
BUT,,,
If Makela is now "out" I hope he will be happy and go on with the life he really
wants and not pull a
Ted Haggard.
After the scandal was publicized, Haggard entered three weeks of
intensive counseling, overseen by four ministers. In February 2007, one
of those ministers, Tim Ralph, said that Haggard "is completely
heterosexual."[3]
Ralph later said he meant that therapy "gave Ted the tools to help to
embrace his heterosexual side." On June 1, 2010 Haggard announced that
he intended to start a new church in Colorado Springs.[4]
In a July 2010 interview with CNN, he confirmed that he has "completely
shunned away any homosexual feelings he has had in the past."[5] In the February 2011 issue of GQ, however, Haggard said that, "probably, if I were 21 in this society, I would identify myself as a bisexual."[6]
__
Well, well, well, what a surprise. Here’s the setup: Meet Reverend Matthew Makela of St. John’s Lutheran Church and School.
Until very recently, he was an associate pastor whose church bio
described him as a man “blessed” with a wife and five children, one
whose interests include “family, music, home improvement, gardening and
landscaping, and sports.” And, as Queerty reveals
this week, he’s also enjoyed taking a clear anti-gay stance, writing in
a now-deleted November letter to the Midland Daily News that “We don’t
tell a person born with tendencies to abuse alcohol to keep on giving in
to his innate desires because he can’t help it. We try to help him in
his struggle.” He’s also spoken out on Facebook about how “The
transgender movement is going to assist opportunistic sickos in preying
upon children and others.” So anyway, guess who’s turned up on Grindr?
In
screenshots obtained by Queerty and confirmed by Makela, the reverend
is seen shirtless in a Grindr exchange, saying that “I love making out
naked, oral and massage. And I top. Also love to cuddle.” He now tells
Queerty he has recently “resigned” from his position but declines to
comment further. As Queerty points out, what people do in private is
their own business. But if you’re publicly promoting the idea that gay
people are like alcoholics and that trans people are in line with
“sickos” while you’re trawling for dates on Grindr, this is not quite in
line with what you’re preaching about “taking the marriage union with
the utmost seriousness.” And it’s genuinely sad and painful to imagine
what this man and his family must be going through now because of the
conflict between what he desired in private and what he promoted in
public. This is what shame and secrecy — so often brought about by some
spectacularly warped ideas about God’s will — do to people. Imagine how
much turmoil could have been avoided by just being honest. Imagine,
beyond the profoundly harmful hypocrisy here, the torment of a man who
among other things wanted someone to cuddle. That’s goddamn
heartbreaking.
[,,,]
The viciousness of Internet mob justice is real and very scary, and unfortunately the trolls will take any opportunity that presents itself to be threatening and abusive. I
wouldn’t blame the St. John’s community in the least for not wanting to
expose itself to drive-by attacks by Facebook cretins. And there’s a
measure of compassion to be found in the church’s choice to not
embarrass Makela in a public condemnation. But for St. John’s to so
actively discourage its congregants from knowing what went down sure
seems to indicate a certain “Please just slink off and let’s everybody
just forget this ever happened” attitude. That’s unhelpful and
profoundly unrealistic.
An anti-LGBT pastor’s Grindr outing: The church’s hypocrisy and denial are the real sins - Salon.com
See also:
Midland pastor resigns after gay news site posts screenshots from his smartphone
EXCLUSIVE: Grindr Screenshots Reveal Antigay Pastor Is A Top Who Likes To Cuddle
“To make matters worse,” he continues, “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…”
Here’s the typical closed-door religious attitude that we
find appalling. If Kempin had it his way, Rev. Makela would have broken
ties with St. John’s congregation without ever having the “details of
sin” made known to them.
His community would never have known that the man telling
them being gay is a condition comparable to alcoholism and that gay
marriage is just another blemish on the holy institution was in fact
seeking the intimacy of men himself.
