MIDLAND, Mich. — A parent has come forward with new accusations against the anti-gay Michigan pastor who was outed for his efforts to hook-up with men on Grindr, and says the pastor told her gay son he was going to hell, leaving him despondent and suicidal.
Jennifer Kish is angered over the recent revelation that Matthew Makela, the former pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church and School in Midland, Mich., might be gay — not because of his sexual orientation, but because of how he treated her son while they were parishioners at his church, reports WNEM-TV.
Kish says her then 17-year-old son Tyler suffered from serious depression and was considering suicide because he was told by Makela he was going to hell because he is gay.
She claims Makela said that if her son was going to hell for being gay, he might as well go to hell for committing suicide.
Never Miss a Beat
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
Makela, a married father of five, resigned as pastor of St. John’s on Sunday, just one day before the website Queerty posted screenshots and text messages of sexually explicit conversations between the pastor and other men on the gay hook-up app Grindr.
Queerty says it outed Makela becuase of his record of disparaging the LGBTQ community, decrying same-sex marriage and for stating that the “transgender movement is going to assist opportunistic sickos in preying upon children and others.”
WNEM-TV reports:
In a follow-up report, Tyler Kish speaks out:
