Antigay Michigan Pastor Outed by Grindr Messages, Resigns From Position at His Church

Rev. Matthew Makela is a married father of five

An antigay pastor in Michigan resigned from his position at St John's Lutheran church in Michigan after his Grindr, a gay dating app, profile was exposed on the Internet. Queerty obtained screenshots of the Rev. Matthew Makela's messages to another user and published them online.

"I love to make out naked. Oral and massage. And I top" and "I would love to mess around with a bicurious guy," a couple of the messages read, as Queerty reported.

The discovery of his profile comes after Makela, a married father of five, preached and even wrote about his antigay sentiments, including posting a short sermon about the quality of "natural marriage" on his Facebook page. He also expressed his views in the comment section of an article that argued sexual attraction must be resisted.

"I love people who have same sex attraction, and so does God. The proof is in the sacrifice He made for all of us," he wrote, as seen by Queerty. The comments have since been deleted. "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 confirmed to the website that both his profile and Facebook pages were legitimate and that he has since resigned from his church. His wife has also been made aware of his secret activities. Makela is the latest in the Grindr exposes, as a North Dakota lawmaker who voted against a gay rights bill was also discovered to be frequenting the app.

The legislator, Rep. Randy Boehning, R-Fargo, 52, confirmed sending a picture of his penis and messages such has "What's up tonight sexy?," under the alias Top Man! to 21-year-old Dustin Smith, who had forwarded them to local news site The Forum.

"That's what gay guys do on gay sites, don't they?" the outlet quoted Boehning as saying on Saturday. "That's how things happen on Grindr. It's a gay chat site. It's not the first thing you do on that site. That's what we do, exchange pics on the site."

Boehning, who the site reported had confirmed that he is gay but also attracted to women, said the disclosure of the photos was part of an attempt to retaliate against him for his vote against the anti-discrimination bill and that a fellow state representative had tried to blackmail him, according to The Washington Post. He did not name names.