Kirk Franklin

“Since Jesus is the truth, if you follow him, you must be truthful, no matter what the personal cost.”

“The Bible is not a book that's an attack on gay people. It's not a book written to attack gay people.”

“You can't sing about Jesus too long without Him changing you.”

“I want young people to realize that they don't have to go to the world to find joy and peace, they can find it in the church.”

“Whatever my lens is, it's always going to be trying my best to see something through what I believe is going to be God's word, and not God's word in the essence of dogma or in the essence of religion, or to be right and to make other people wrong.”

“It's important for a gospel artist not to try to be mainstream.”

“Being raised in the church and being raised in hip-hop, it was just a really natural marriage.”

“I prefer being flawed and I prefer being seen flawed.”

“You know, when you read stories in the Bible - you know, Samson, the story of David or the story of Moses - you know, there's conflict on the way to the victory.”

“Real people live with, you know, being Christians with cancer, Christians with AIDS, and Christians coming back home with limbs missing from war, and Christians being evicted, and Christians losing their homes. And if you don't paint that picture, too, then I think that you are misrepresenting what the faith really can look like.”

“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.”

“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. But the definition doesn't define the relationship, meaning you can be married and still not know intimacy.”

“If I'm writing and doing music celebrating the Creator, who is the most creative being in the world - I mean, when you look at nature and when you look at all of the beautiful created things - why should I be limited in expressing myself? He's creative, so why shouldn't my music be creative, too?”

“We've gotta be able to change that climate so that people feel more comfortable to be honest about their wounds.”

“A lot of times we make God to be this protagonist to our hope and our joy, and to be this old, grumpy man with this long beard and white robe. That is so counterintuitive to the heart of God.”

“I don't work with an artist to try to blow up, but to see if the music can be medicine, if it can be therapeutic and serve a bigger purpose.”

“My mama didn't want me; my daddy wasn't there. So there were a lot of insecurities and low self-esteem.”

“If you start as a Christian artist trying to be mainstream, you're done from the beginning.”

“Music for me should be more like a mission.”

“We're trying to create content that is very culturally forward without compromising the push of the gospel.”