The Gospel Of Kirk Franklin

Over the weekend I opened up my Twitter app to see individuals talking about Kirk Franklin and an interaction that he had with his older son. There was discussion about was he right in how he spoke to his son, there were individuals who spoke to the fact that their parents had spoken to them the same way, there were individuals who stated that Kirk Franklin should be canceled and then there were individuals like me trying to be Baldwininian and to serve as a worthy witness. The first thing that I did was build context, now I for one was raised in the Christian tradition and my father is a minister who leans heavily into Black liberation theology. As the son of a minister, most of my upbringing was on gospel music so while my classmates would talk about the newest pop songs, I would be wondering what was their take on Shirley Caesar “Hold My Mule”. Also, while being raised in the church I was a song leader. So after listening to gospel music I would try to embody some of the traditions of the songbirds into my song leading. The one songbird I loved most was Kirk Franklin, because as a preacher’s child Kirk Franklin (and Fred Hammond) were the closest things I would get to NWA in my household. When I would lead songs, and still when I do now, I would embody Kirk Franklin in my ad-libbing and gesturing and energy to move with the spirit. There is nothing like being in a space (for me) with Black folks singing gospel. However, embodying Kirk Franklin added a whole new layer to this experience.

I would continue to listen to Kirk Franklin from my youth in the 90s until present day and see his transformation as an artist and as a man. I recall when I was in middle school and got into some trouble for watching pornography it was Kirk Franklin’s interview and vulnerability on Oprah and his albums Hero (2005) and The Fight of My Life (2007) that gave me some insight on navigating this terrain. Those albums and the accompanying documentaries made me take a new look at Kirk Franklin and his album The Rebirth of Kirk Franklin and realize how much we all truly need to be born again and again and again. I continued to follow Kirk Franklin and his music not only of the present but the past and would listen to his music on days when I was feeling low or as if I had lost my way. Kirk Franklin in many ways has served as a voice for the Black youth gospel tradition and I believe is to be credited for the emergence of artists such as Lecrae. Kirk Franklin made it cool to be at church, he made it cool to be loving and he made it cool for a Black boy to be a songbird. Ultimately, Kirk Franklin made it alright for us all to be who we are and to understand that we all needed grace and to be reborn again and again and again.

When news broke about the incident the first thing I thought was that there was no way that it was true. But then I read and watched Kirk Franklin issue a public apology to the public. What baffled me was how could this man who had been through so much and had spent his entire life advocating for grace and forgiveness take this position with his only son. I think about how in the gospels there is the story of the prodigal son, who disrespects his father and leaves home. After being away from home for a while and spending all of his inheritance he decides to return home. The beautiful thing about his return was that the prodigal child knows that despite what wrong they have done their family will accept them back home. Did Kirk forget this, I don’t really think so, but I believe in the heat of the moment he forgot that he, like all of us, has some prodigal measures within us when it comes to grace and understanding. So, I stood with individuals that did not ask to cancel Kirk Franklin but rather were asking for him to come home and be accountable for his actions.

Adrieenne Maree Brown in her text WE WILL NOT CANCEL US writes, “The truth is, sometimes it takes a long time for us to realize the harm that has happened to us. And longer to realize we have caused harm to others.” This is true of Kirk Franklin who was born in 1970 and endured so much coming up, so much pain, abuse, loss and heartbreak and it took him nearly 30 years to begin to really deal with that pain. And here he is in 2021, talking to a 30 year old son not realizing the cosmology in the numbers and of indigenous cyclical time. Kirk Franklin’s son needed Kirk to remember from whence he had come and how he came to be converted. It reminds me of when Jesus of Nazareth spoke to Peter and let him know about how he was going to betray him and Peter did not believe that it would happen because of his strong love for Jesus. Jesus however knew he would fall and fail and said to Peter, “when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren” (Luke 22:32). The same can be said of Kirk Franklin. We knew that he was and is human like us, so we knew that there were going to be moments when he would stumble along the way. But in his stumbling and in his music, he had been converted and he had an opportunity to strengthen his brother-son. Those of us engaging in transformative love and have been converted to this transformative view of love are now trying to strengthen our brother Kirk, his son and ourselves. Many are using this time to lean into this idea that they were treated the same way and they turned out fine. But if you have to argue and place your feet firmly in the sinking sand of that argument, you truly did not turn out fine. You were harmed and you didn’t need that treatment at any point of your life. Lauryn Hill asks “why be a hard rock when you are really a gem”? When the prodigal child returns home they do not need to be battered with words and told about how wrong they were for what they did, they need love, a meal and acceptance. It is the responsibility of those who remain or cause prodigal children to leave to make sure that before they leave that we have developed such life-affirming communities that they know that they can always come back home.

In 1998, Kirk Franklin released The Nu Nation Project and on this album there was a song entitled “Hold Me Now”. Some of the lyrics are:

The spring of April’s gone

The leaves have all turned brown.

The children are all grown up and there’s no one around.

I’m looking over my life

and all the mistakes, I’ve made.

And I’m afraid afraid.

See, somebody told me that — You would wash all my sins.

And cleanse me from the scars — that are so deep within.

So I’m calling to You. If You can hear me — I don’t how.

I was wonderin’

Can You hold me now?

You are the only one that patient when I fall.

Your angels come to save me, everytime I call.

You don’t laugh at me, when I make mistakes and cry.

You’re not like man. You understand me.

See, people change one day, they don’t like you, the next they do.

I wish that everyone could love me just like You.

So here I am, this sinful man, peace won’t allow.

I was wonderin’

Can You hold me now?

This song and Nu Nation is us and is us with Kirk Franklin. In our transformative love it is our responsibility to hold people accountable but also center the fact that we all are a little inconsistent and in need of some grace. What Kirk Franklin needs is for us to hold him now and as the spring season emerges let us also emerge as new people and transformed people. And let us all be able to look at each other in this nu nation and to be able to ask each other without fear of rejection, can you hold me now?