Brooke Obie

From EBONY.com:

Kirk Franklin is back with a bold new gospel album, Losing My Religion. The first single from first single from his 11th album, “Wanna Be Happy?,” is already breaking records he set four years ago, debuting at #1 and becoming the best first-week digital single in gospel music history.

But the iconic singer/songwriter/producer known for redefining contemporary gospel aims to do much more than break records. He wants his proactively titled LP to shake up the way Christians put their faith to work. EBONY.com caught up with Franklin to discuss why he’s “losing his religion,” and how other Christians can join him.

EBONY: On the title track to your new album, you express frustration with Christians focusing so much on the rules of Christianity and not enough on the love of God. What do you mean by that?

Kirk Franklin: Sometimes we can be so focused on the rules that our glory becomes that we keep the rules. And so your spirituality or your sanctification or your praise is that you’re a good rule keeper, instead of the praise being that you’re weak and you don’t have the power and you celebrate [Jesus], the One who fulfilled the rules for you.

And so that’s what Losing My Religion is all about, because I think that people don’t feel the love from Christians that they should. They don’t feel safe in the place of brokenness, in the place of grace or the place of need like they should. Get rid of this celebration of who’s the best rule keeper and, instead, help people. Get to the love of Christ.

EBONY: You’ve been an example of this practical Christianity through the vulnerability in your music—your openness with your struggle with depression on the Hero album comes to mind. But also when you and your wife went on Oprah to talk about your addiction to pornography. How can Christians get to this safe space of vulnerability and help others feel safe discussing their struggles as well?

KF: I was invited to come on The Oprah Winfrey Show because they heard my testimony about coming from a promiscuous past. I had been introduced to pornography as a kid, and I took that into my teenage years and younger years. When I became a Christian, I knew that was not a part of the life God wanted me to live. Getting married I thought would fix it. When it didn’t, I went to my wife the first year of our marriage and told her, “I really want to be a better dude and I still struggle in this area.”

Us going on the show was a part of that purpose, to show the weakness and show that I’m a flawed person. You can impress people with your accomplishments, but you transform people with your struggles. I transform people when I say, “This is who I was, this is what I did, this is how I hurt, this is how I heal.” And if I have a key that most people struggle with, are imprisoned with, why not use that key?

Some people may say, “Keep your business to yourself.” But that’s also the plight of Black people: we keep the doors closed and we never heal. I heal as I reveal. The more I reveal, the more the man of God I feel like I’m becoming.
Read more at EBONY http://www.ebony.com/entertainment-culture/kirk-franklin-walks-the-path-t-losing-his-religion-333#ixzz3rrc7mk3N

Comments

comments