Kirk Franklin tackles abortion, homosexuality on 'Breakfast Club': ‘Bible is not homophobic’
Gospel icon Kirk Franklin visited popular syndicated radio show "The Breakfast Club," where he discussed his new album and his position on the hot button issues of homosexuality and abortion.
“All Scripture is God-breathed ... but what we have to understand also is that the Canon of Scripture still is coming from a place of a loving God," Franklin said on the program this week. "God is not built to hate gay people. The Bible is not a manual on how to hate gay people.
"And so if we continue to keep isolating these individual things and make that the premise of what God is and who God is we are missing the [point] ... that there is room at the cross for all of us. And all of us got something and to make your something bigger than my something is to miss how big the love and grace of God is."
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He added, “God is a God of truth, I believe that God's love is the truth. There's no truth without love and love can't exist without truth.”
Franklin was responding to co-host Charlamagne tha God who said he doesn't see love in the Bible, but rather "homophobic stuff" as well as anti-semitism.
The Gospel singer contended, “There's not homophobic stuff in the Bible. What it is, is that there are men and women who have not necessarily been trained to be able to exegete Scripture, to be able to understand the totality of the text. Because if you are going to call one thing a sin in the Bible you can not eisegete that text and realize that pride, jealousy, envy [are also sins].”
When co-host Angela Yee expressed her opposition to what some have called "conversion" therapy — namely efforts to change a person's sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual — Franklin shared a similar sentiment.
“I think it's very embarrassing to think that we have to make people exactly the way we think that they need to be, to be able to do life with them,” Franklin said when asked about what some have called "conversion" therapy.
“It's all about walking out life with men and women and to see everyone created in God’s image and basically no one group of people will ever be monolithic; everybody has different views even inside of different communities. But it's all about learning how to agree to disagree and still letting love lead the narrative,” he said.
The mainstream radio hosts took the opportunity to also inquire about another controversial topic — abortion.
Franklin revealed he was almost aborted by his mother. The entertainer was adopted by a “64-year-old lady” at the age of four.
“I remember my biological mother telling my adopted mother, ‘I didn’t want him, I wanted an abortion and you wouldn't let me.’ So I lived with that abandonment issue, so yes I am a pro-life person. But at the same time, it would be hypocritical to not also tell you that when I was a teenager I paid for an abortion,” the “I Smile” singer confessed.
“It would be hypocritical of me to not also say that I have also contributed to the conversation or to the issues, to the same thing that hurt me.”
He said he apologized to the young lady who had the abortion because he encouraged it and drove her to the facility.
"My point is that I am pro-life but I still believe that I do not have a right to force a woman to do anything with her body, the same way that I can't force somebody to come to Jesus Christ,” Franklin said in the interview.
“There's no way that I can't force anybody to believe in my savior. So I hope that I can try to live a life and try to teach my daughters, try to portray what a loving family and loving children can be. At the same time, it's got to be a choice. There's no way that I can force anybody to receive anything.”
Franklin was invited on the show to discuss his 13th studio album, Long Live Love, which is now available.
Explaining the inspiration behind the album title, he said, "It's just very obvious where we are, just the climate of culture, just the polarization. And even my Christian brothers even across the aisle and their lack of empathy for black and brown people and not being able to understand that the Creator of love is challenging us to be able to learn how to love people that are not always the most lovable because we're at times not always the most lovable but then still God is madly in love with us."
Franklin ventures out on a 26-city tour on July 11. He is also the host of the 9th season of the hit music competition show, Sunday Best, which returns to BET on June 30.
