Kirk Franklin Is Changing Gospel with ‘Losing My Religion’

Kirk Franklin’s ‘Losing My Religion’

Losing My Religion is the recent Grammy Award winning Best Gospel Album by Kirk Franklin. At the 2017 Grammy Awards Franklin performed “All We Got” with Chance the Rapper and won Best Gospel Performance/Song for “God Provides”.

Kirk Franklin Is Changing Gospel with ‘Losing My Religion'[/tweetthis]

The title “Losing My Religion” seemingly led Kirk Franklin’s fans to think he was saying goodbye to Christianity.[/tweetit] He defended the title of the album with his comments, “Religion is a prison, but the truth sets us free.” He further adds, “I just wanna have deeper conversations that intellectually challenge us, to make sure that we are growing the right way. I wanna make sure that we are not just being cultural Christians just ‘cause we are black. Or because we are Americans. I want to talk about weighty stuff.”

Franklin was for some time the subject of controversy when he featured on a photo with the secular idol Kanye West. “I really hope and pray that he is not collaborating with that blasphemous fool.” These were comments a fan made on social media platform Instagram after photos emerged of him and Kanye. Franklin features in West’s album TLOP (The Life of Pablo). “Kanye is not me, and I am not him. He is my brother I am proud to do life with. To a lot of my Christian family, I am sorry he is not good enough, Christian enough, or running at your pace… and as I read your comments, neither am I. That won't stop me from running.” Kirk responded.

“Christianity, and the framework of religion, makes us a subculture,” But there’s a whole other world going on—technology, and science, and racism, and economics, and capitalism, and all of these things happening, but we have this bubble. And the problem is that when people leave this bubble they have to go into the world to work, and to raise their kids, and to find a spouse, to pay taxes. So why wouldn’t you take what you learn in the bubble and affect the world? You can’t do that if you only know the bubble.” Remarked Kirk Franklin when further defending himself in light of the events then.

Kirk Dewayne Franklin is a 47-year-old American Gospel artist. He is married to Tammy Collins, and together they have two children. Kirk has been in the music scene for a long time now, and he is showing no signs of downing his tools. He boasts of a career spanning for over 25 years in the Gospel music scene. During his tenure, he has been no stranger to controversy. His decision to merge hip-hop and Gospel has rubbed many people worldwide in the wrong way. His devotion to the church has been subjected to question on numerous occasions, and some have dismissed his cause as a quest for fame and popularity especially among women.

Born Kirk Mathis, Franklin was abandoned by both his parents at a tender age. His relative Gertrude Franklin looked after him. His talent was very evident from when he was a teenager. He constantly listened to the famous Top Forty radio. At eleven he became minister of music at his church, and there he began writing and performing songs together with choirs he had assembled from all over Fort Worth. His first song, “Jesus Is Coming Back”, was a reworking of Elton John's “Bennie and the Jets”. From this, it is quite evident of his desire to meld the secular and the sacred. His unlikely collaborations have further fueled people’s doubt in his claims of salvation. R. Kelly, Mary. J. Blige and Bono are some of the names in the pop scene who he has collaborated with.

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