Gospel singer Kirk Franklin raised quite a few eyebrows when he released his new album called "Losing My Religion." Some people assumed that it means he has lost his faith in God, but Franklin explains that it's all about people strengthening their relationships with God as opposed to just abiding by their religion.
"I believe that one of the reasons there is a decline in churches and why millennials are no longer professing faith is because the doctrine and the dogma that we place on people when they come to faith is getting in the way of us pursuing a relationship with Jesus Christ," Franklin told The Gospel Herald.
"Instead of allowing the love of God to compel people, we place too much emphasis on trying to control thinking and actions and developing discipline," he said. "When people fall in love with Jesus and realise how much He is in love with them, that affects how we live and what we do and how we think. So, we begin to read the Word, not as a manual on how to be better, but as a book of love letters. In the spirit of that love, we become transformed."
Franklin hopes that his new album will inspire people to "lose their religion and really pursue a relationship with Jesus Christ," since it is the only way they can be transformed from the outside in.
The singer shared that "Losing My Religion" is not just a continuation of all his past albums since he first started out back in 1990, but a true testament to his spiritual growth with Jesus Christ.
"My music is inspired by my faith and what the Lord has compelled me to write; what He's given birth inside of me to write," he explained. "I've grown closer to Him... It's so easy for Christian musicians to allow what we do to become who we are. We find our identity in our art. But God didn't give us art to for that; He gave it to us so it could be an expression for Him, so that we could walk through that and speak through that. But, very often it's easy to forget that our identity isn't in our art, but in a new birth experience."
