Holy Crap: Don’t Look Edition — UPDATED
Y’all, Midland, Michigan.
It turns out that this guy:
Is also this guy:
Yep, Rev. Makela preached a strong anti-gay message, comparing it to alcoholism, and then turns up on a gay meet-up website.
But you know whose fault all this is, right? The other minister of the church tells the congregants not to read anything about this because “sin is never pretty.” He writes to the membership —
“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…
Dude, but lambasting gays and transgendered people is not harmful to them and their families?
You can serve holy crap on a bed of bibles but it’s still holy crap.
Thanks to everybody for the heads up.
UPDATE: It appears that prior to be jerked out of the closet, Makela had encourage gay teens to commit suicide.
Makela told then 17-year-old Tyler Kish — who was suffering from depression at the time — that if he insisted on embracing a homosexual lifestyle, he might as well commit the mortal sin of suicide because he was already ticketed for hell.
“If he’s going to hell for being gay then he might as well commit suicide,” Kish said Makela advised her son. He also, she alleged, went on social media to berate her for remaining supportive of her son after he came out to her.
Yes, Pastor, let’s do talk about sin and how it’s “not pretty.”
Pay no attention to the man behind the fabulously stylish curtains!
1“You can serve holy crap on a bed of bibles but it’s still holy crap.”
Thank You JJ.
Truth.
2It is just not lambasting them. He’s actively saying they are deviants who want to do harm to children or others.
That is just so wrong. I hate hate-mongering speech designed to attack the non-rational parts of the brain!
3I guess that’s the closet behind him that Matt’s been hiding in.
4This guy needs to read the Bible, if he can read.
5This guy really hates who he is. And at this point he’s got a lot of company, though not for the same reasons.
I do feel sorry for his family.
How much would you like to bet that he will repent, get counseling, and be welcomed back into the fold by the other far right hypocrites.
6Anbody know what denomination this church is?
7Oh, I see. Condemn people who you feel are sinning can be public, BUT when you do the same sins it’s private. Okay. Got it. Just shoot me.
8JAKvirginia, it’s called “situational ethics”, the biggest load of caca ever.
9Reverend Matthew Makela of Midland, Michigan, has resigned his position. Makela worked at St John’s Lutheran Church as an associate pastor.
10St Johns Lutheran in Midland MI is a member of the LCMS – Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. That is a very conservative Lutheran group interested in maintaining “purity” – unlike the largest Lutheran denomination ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.) which is a progressive church. (Evangelical not to be construed as Evangelical Christians) We in the ELCA often joke that LCMS folks are Baptists that want to drink!
11Holy sheet and shinola … and folks wonder why no one is racing to embrace religion of any kind these days!! Even I have given up any attendance to any given church due to the hypocrites housed therein!!
No denomination is safe from these ugly creatures!! Just turns my stomach!!
12Somebody tried to make us feel guilty about this a**hole being outed and his life and family destroyed. I felt a momentary pang.
Sod that. If he urged a depressed gay kid to kill himself, no outing is too nasty for him, though some sympathy to any of his family who are not as horrible as he is. I hope that boy got good counseling and turns out to be a happy, loved and loving man. And if there’s a hell, Makela can go there.
13Disgusting and sad.
14There simply are now words ………..well, there are some, but I doubt they would be printed. What a disgusting waste of human flesh. I wonder who it was that turned him down that made him so angry. The gays will have nothing to do with him……….he’s on his own spiral downward.
15” no words”…………grrrrr
16This from the letter to the congregation:
“To keep our perspective, though, in the midst of this sudden storm, we must remember that this was never about the details of sin.”
“..in the midst of this sudden storm…” let’s remember that he who sows the wind shall reap the storm, so you brought it on your ownselves.
and further on he blathers…
“As for St. John’s, we are a place for those who know their sin to come and receive forgiveness from God and understanding from their brothers and sisters.”
…then why did the guy resign?
Let’s get one thing straight, Pastor. Ol’ Matty’s sin is not that he was gay: it’s that he’s a hypocrite. And I’ll tell you something else. Hypocritical pastors are not exactly a SECRET SIN.
17Holy yak sweat! Ain’t it always the way!
18The good Pastor and his flock of like-minded lunatics need to flock on over to Somalia. That they cherry pick their Buybull with immunity and without taxation is merely annoying. That they hide behind the US Constitution to spout their nonsense, while denying equal protection to all citizens makes them both unAmerican and unChristian.
Hate to break it to you, Pastor, but I’m a straight man with white male privilege who supports a woman’s right to choose, because of only one little fact: she is a citizen worthy of all the respect and rights due any citizen. Same as I support same-sex marriage. What some might consider to be “non-issues” to me become issues to me, ie as in MY BUSINESS, when dolts like the ‘pastor’ and sociopaths wearing badges subvert our Democracy. As Piyush Jindal should say, but won’t: “this is America and we have only one class of citizen.”
Seriously, Pastor, cuddle up to your version of Sharia Law and enjoy a slow boat cruise to Somalia.
19Amazing how many Bible-thumpers destroy themselves and their following when their own hypocrisy is uncovered.
20I’m glad someone has already identified this church as LCMS and not ELC. LCMS is extremely outspoken against gays and extremely conservative.
21One of their pastors you may remember was censured by the national church for appearing on stage with “other” religious leaders (rabbi and imam as I recall) including other Christian denominations for a memorial for the Sandyhook children.
I really sort of feel sorry for this fellow. If he was raised LCMS and was a homosexual, the guilt and pain had to be overwhelming. Have no idea why he would become a pastor there–must have been in total denial. He’ll most certainly need therapy but the LCMS no doubt will boot him (I guess he already “resigned”) so he won’t have insurance to get it. Sorry for his wife and 5 kids, too. Not sorry for the LCMS or LCWS (Michele Bachmann’s church of choice).
OTOH, Jesus did teach us to pray in a closet, not on the streets like the hypocrites. Matthew 6 or so if memory serves. I guess this hypocrite did both at the same time.
22No wonder the millennials can’t be found in the pews on Sunday morning! Church is starting to sound like an unclean place. And without the wallet power of millennials, The Church of Whatever I Say It Us simply won’t be around for long. All them other non-millennials have a habit of dying off.
23Merry, I live in Nevada, where most of us can identify the distinctions between LDS and FLDS, so I appreciate the insight you and BlueMeadow provide as to the significant distinctions between ELC and LCWS.
I enter this conversation not so much as a lapsed Jew disappointed with Zionists, but as a man who has served in the military, done some time teaching school, and is now happily raising cattle and crops in a way that supports the environment to feed people. Plus, I am a happily married man with a beautiful wife who wants to have children with me. We want our children and all children to have all the advantages we had.
Like you and most sane people, we’re good with the US Constitution supporting religious freedom. But the Huckabee and Makela types conflate the issues. Embracing or supporting religious freedom under the US Constitution does not give them a right to create a White Somalian state in the name of God, Jesus or any other deity.
Equal justice for all, with no regard to gender, color, sexual preference, religious beliefs or any form of bigotry; united we stand, the United States. (sounds simple, but it’s the simple truth.)
24maggie, my dear (if I may say dear) keep on doing what you do! Challenge us millennials as you will; it’s good for us and you. The discussion at The World’s Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, Inc., you, Marge Wood, Micr and so many here, not to mention the incredible Mrs. B. her ownself inspire a few more millennials engaged in politics.
Can’t promise my friends will text on and get haircuts here, but I can promise you they will read AND, I’ll do my best to get their sorry butts to the ballot box.
25Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Religious groups have become far too powerful in this country as they have focused on politics instead of religion.
26The conservatives claim that there is a War on Christianity, when in reality there is a War on Hypocrisy, religious, political, financial and any other form. Fight the good fight!
27I was raised a secular Jew, and I’m an out and proud atheist. I am, nevertheless, attending The Shul of New York, where the music is terrific and all are welcome, “from atheists to Zoroastrians” (even zyxommas).
Tomorrow night is Shavuoth (festival of weeks), and our head rabbi (we have two, despite having no synagogue to call our own) has invited us to celebrate at his home. I’m going. The first mention I ever heard of Shavuoth was when Sandra Bernhard used it in King of Comedy. I asked my then-boyfriend what it was, and he said, “It’s sort of like graduation.”
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