Podcast – Sunday 4 May, 2pm, JOY 94.9 Melbourne

 

 

Click here for the Word for Word program Page

 

Rev Matt Glover

Matt began his career as a research scientist for Dulux Australia, before entering into full time ministry with the Baptist Church in Victoria. Holding the positions of Youth Pastor and Senior Pastor, Matt wrestled with the institution of the church and living an authentic spirituality. Pastoral care is one of Matt’s strengths. He was a chaplain in the aftermath of the Black Saturday bushfires and he’s often cared for families in their grief after unexpectedly losing a loved one. He has run a play group for homeless fathers, helped people recover from spiritual abuse, and done extensive work with the LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex) community in Melbourne.

Since leaving church based ministry, Matt has been involved with palliative care, grief and loss counselling and has now established MGA (Matt Glover and Associates) Counselling Services. Matt’s journey with the LGBTI community has received much media attention in recent years. Working towards improving the mental health of the LGBTI community is one of Matt’s passions and he has had direct exposure to the ex-gay movement from many angles, from counselling survivors to past association with Australia’s leading ex-gay proponents. His latest project is the Homecoming Project, a cutting edge initiative to help gay and lesbian people nurture authentic spirituality.

For more about MGA Counselling and the Homecoming Project, visit:

           

To hear an interview from April 2013 featuring Matt Glover talking about counselling regulation, hit play below.

 

Dr Timothy Jones

Timothy Jones is a cultural historian, whose research explores the relationship between religion, sex and sexuality in the past 200 years. His PhD was recently published as Sexual Politics in the Church of England, 1857-1957 (OUP 2013), and he is currently an ARC research fellow at La Trobe University working on the project ‘Whose Family Values? The Christian Right and Sexual Politics in Postsecular Australia’. He grew up in a conservative Evangelical church, where his father was the pastor. Tim is also a social commentator and has studied the roots of ex-gay thinking in Australia.

You can read more about Timothy and his work at:  

 

The Interview

Matt was removed from ministry role at a suburban Baptist church due to his support for same-sex marriage. He experienced much suffering as a result of this, however he has also brought hope and healing to many LGBTI people of faith through his involvement with Freedom2Be – a social and support community for LGBTI people from faith backgrounds – and his counselling practice. Matt has a great deal of insight into the biblical and theological ideas that cause so many evangelicals to reject LGBTI people. He has counselled many ex-gay survivors and has an insider’s view of ex-gay practices that proliferate across Australian evangelical churches and is aware of their origins, motivations and practices.

Together, Tim and Matt will create a picture of the history of the reparative therapy movement in Australia – including its misguided appropriation of psychotherapy, its past broad support, its secular influences and its religious agenda. Through understanding its history, as well as its more recent incarnations, new strategies for the future can be established.

 

LGBTI history – a brief refresher

Fascinating clips from ABC Australia’s 7.30 Report in 1989, the 1993 American film One Nation Under God, and the biographical film Codebreaker that tells the story of Alan Turing – one of history’s greatest scientists and a victim of systemic homophobia.