Gospel artist Kirk Franklin, known for his contemporary style of gospel music and his ability to relate to the younger generation, has written a book titled The Blueprint: A Plan for Overcoming Life’s Obstacles. In it, Franklin openly discusses his own life struggles, including his mother’s cutting remarks about him being an unwanted child, witnessing his sister deal with crack addiction and never knowing an African American husband who was faithful to his wife.
In a recent photo shoot with Franklin in midtown Atlanta, following the taping of his appearance on The Mo’Nique Show on BET, rolling out was granted an exclusive opportunity to chat with the bestselling gospel artist. Every meeting this writer has ever had with Franklin has been a genuine experience thanks to his down-to-earth nature and approachability.
Franklin shares his perspective on how the black church and community deals with homosexuals, adulterers and gigolos. He purports that whether it’s “a heterosexual lifestyle, adulterous relationship, envy, jealousy, pride or ego, we must be able to speak on people’s lifestyles [without applying labels or exclusivity]. We must be able to model what love looks like. Many young men and women can be talked to and communicated with when the sermon is not coming from the pulpit, when it is not homophobic and when it is not filled with evil and hatred, or a certain bias.”
He continues, saying that we must offer “the same amount of grace and love as we would to the organist that sleeps with every member of the choir. We [tend to] be hypocritical in our culture.”
Franklin’s usual street flair and light-hearted humor — which he usually deploys to put people at ease — were absent as he discussed the serious subject matter.
“When you talk about same [sex] desires, it cannot be a part of the public discussion because that will continue to polarize the issue,” he says. “You will continue to argue and you will never say anything good enough to satisfy [both communities].”
Franklin offers a viable solution though.
“We must be bold and not be afraid to grab the hands of young people if there is a young [person] who has questions about his lifestyle and he may be struggling with it,” he adds. “If I am not willing to allow him to come into my home, have dinner with me and see a heterosexual man in his home [with his wife and kids] so that he will be able to glean from it if he chooses, then I need to be quiet. I need to shut up and put my gospel on the shelf.” –yvette caslin
