NEWSSpeakers reflect on experiences as gay CatholicsSelena Ponio | Tuesday, October 6, 2015Monday night, blogger Matthew Franklin Jones spoke about a place where he often experienced isolation and a lack of love and acceptance: his church.Jones, a contributor to the blog “Spiritual Friendship,” spoke Monday night at “Gay and Catholic,” a conversation hosted by the Gender Relations Center (GRC), about how he grew up in Portland, Oregon, as a gay teenager in a conservative Baptist community and how to this day he continues to live out a celibate life as a Protestant.“It just was not talked about, and when it was it was in very hushed tones, in broad condemning statements of all gay people — very ‘us versus them’ statements,” Jones said.Jones said the stereotypical negative sentiments that were blindly thrown over the entire population of gay people eventually succeeded in making him homophobic himself at one stage in his life. He said much of what affected him was his church’s decision to silence any conversation regarding matters of homosexuality.“The world is already having this conversation and when the church is silent on it … then that just simply removes the church from the conversation,” Jones said. “It actually removes what should be a voice of compassion and mercy.”

Source: Speakers reflect on experiences as gay Catholics // The Observer