Kirk Franklin Surprises Walmart Christmas Shoppers, Gives Away $50 Gift Cards
Kirk Franklin is spreading holiday cheer by rewarding strangers with gifts before Christmas.
When his Losing My Religion album was out of stock in a Bowie, Maryland, Walmart the 45-year-old gospel music recording artist decided to give shoppers and employees $50 Visa gift cards.
"Excuse me, ladies and gentleman, y'all might not want to leave. I got a blessing for a lot of people and I feel like being in the giving mood," Franklin's voice crackled over the Walmart loudspeaker on Dec. 20, according to EEW magazine.
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"I feel like blessing some people this holiday season, so if you are in line and if you're about to spend some money, you're about to get a little bit of a blessing, because I feel like blessing some folk.
"We bout to do something dope again in a minute," Franklin tweeted. "Going live. ... Putting smiles on faces this holiday. Don't believe me just watch."
Although he was the generous giver, Franklin still managed to thank those who received his gifts. After he streamed the event on Facebook live he took to Instagram to show gratitude to the Walmart employees who helped him during the experience.
"Thank you to the team at @Walmart store #1893," Franklin wrote. "We had fun today. You all do an amazing job!"
Since some people did not activate gift cards, Franklin announced that he would be giving away more before Christmas.
"The cards all worked!!!!! 7 people left without getting them activated so I'll post the 7 cards I'll give out somewhere before Christmas," he revealed.
Franklin is promoting his 11th studio album, Losing My Religion which is spreading the message that people need to look beyond their religious beliefs.
"Religion is man's systematic approach to try to keep the rules. The problem is that when man's ideology and thought process gets involved, sometimes what he does is change the rules," Franklin previously told CP.
"A lot of times the thoughts of religion are not all bibliocentric, sometimes they're cultural. Then it becomes cultural to say, 'it's wrong to do this and it's wrong to do that.' It becomes a misinterpretation of scripture.
"I would never say that claiming you're a Christian is wrong. I understand that there is a human aspect of being able to identify people whether it's African American, Hispanic or Asian," he asserted. "But the definition doesn't define the relationship, meaning you can be married and still not know intimacy. You can be religious and not know relationship."
