One month after Kirk Franklin responded to rapper Plies’ invitation to attend a strip club in exchange for church attendance, the gospel music artist is revealing why.
“The reason why I responded is because I want to show people that as a Christian, we are not untouchable. That can be very disrespectful for another human being to say something to you and because he’s not a church person I can’t say nothing back,” the songwriter producer and recording artist told Hip Hollywood. “Who am I? That’s the type of mantra I try to live under..who am I?
The 39-year-old Florida based rapper Plies propositioned the “Losing My Religion” artist with a trip to a Miami strip club called King Of Diamonds.
“Y’all tell Kirk Franklin I say I wanna take him to King Of Diamonds…,” rapper Plies said in an Instagram video shared with over 2 million of the rapper’s followers. “He can go in, he ain’t even gotta get no dancers, he can go right in and turn right back around and go take him a holy bath. Kirk, listen, you go to King Of Diamonds with me and I’ll go to church with you, an even swap.”
Franklin, 45, created his own Instagram video response to negotiate different terms of a potential agreement.
“Y’all tell @plies that the album is called Losing My Religion not ‘Lost My Religion,'” Franklin responded. “Next time I come to Miami, you gotta come to a Baptist church with me, and sit through a three-hour church service with tambourines and a church cookout. And then, I may walk by the club. I may walk on the parking lot and just walk on the curb.”
Even though Franklin admitted that he had trouble understanding Plies’ message, the gospel superstar thought it was cool to interact with the hip-hop star.
“When he was talking I couldn’t understand what he was saying. I had to play it four or five times,” Franklin told Hip Hollywood. “But you know, much respect to him it was really cool for him to reach out.”
Still, he made it clear that he was not seriously considering the offer.
“I said I’ll walk on the curb if he goes to a three hour church service. It’s gotta be one of them churches where the AC don’t work,” Franklin said. “So three hours of just sweat and stank. Then we will get the church cookout food, fresh fish, fried fish and the french fries. And then maybe I’ll walk by the club.”
Franklin believes it is important for religious people to show love to those who are struggling with sin. In an interview with The Christian Post last month, the “Losing My Religion” recording artist remembered a time when he was not receiving love from the religious community.
“There’s a lot of people like me who the system never introduced to the love of God. Knowing God as a loving father is very foreign to them,” he told CP. “I think most people in mainstream America, they don’t know God. There’s always more picket signs [saying] ‘God hates gays’ or ‘God hates abortion.’ But when have you seen a picket sign that says ‘Jesus loves you?'”
Franklin hopes to shed light on God’s love with his newest album which recently debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Gospel and Top Christian/Gospel Albums Chart.
“I just keep trying and failing and I will continue to keep trying to see what I can do to try to keep people engaged in the conversation about our Lord and Savior, man,” he said. “Really that’s all I’m trying to do. Really, at the end of the day, if I want to keep God part of the conversation then I will do everything I can to make that happen.”
-SOURCE: The Christian Post
