Kirk Franklin Calls Out Christian Leaders Supporting Donald Trump
Kirk Franklin is speaking out against any Christian pastors who has decided to publicly stand with Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump.
"To every pastor that stood next to Donald Trump last week, I hope you now see why we're losing respect as Christians in the world...While you were so busy wanting 'camera time,' you didn't 'take time' to examine his character," Franklin tweeted. "Banning Muslims does not reflect our country, Or our Christ. I am very disappointed in people that say they believe what I believe compromise that for contaminated influence. I'm done."
Franklin, the songwriter, gospel recording artist and minister of music, engaged in his Twitter rant against Trump's pastoral supporters after the presidential hopeful called for the banning of Muslims entering the United States.
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"Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on," a press release from the Trump campaign said.
Last week, an advertisement was released about a meeting taking place between Trump and black Christian preachers Bishop Clarence McClendon of the Full Harvest International Church in Los Angeles, Bishop Hezekiah Walker of the Love Fellowship Tabernacle megachurch in New York and Darrell Scott from the New Spirit Revival Center in Ohio.
Scott organized the event because the minister said he wanted some of his church leader friends to meet the man he is choosing to endorse.
"Some of these pastors have never even met Trump yet. They told me, 'I don't know if I'm ready to endorse yet. I want to see him and I want hear his heart,'" Scott told The Daily Beast. "All of these guys are my friends and they know me. I let them know I am endorsing, but that doesn't mean you are endorsing."
While preachers like Bishop Corletta Vaughn, the senior pastor of the Holy Spirit Cathedral of Faith in Detroit, and well known Bishop Paul Morton from Atlanta revealed that they declined to meet with Trump, Bishop Walker spoke out against the backlash he received for even considering the meeting.
"My title in the Lord's Church went from (Bishop) to prostitute on the poll, Uncle Tom, money hungry, fake, disloyal and dishonest to a coon dancing with the devil. What broke my heart is that all of the name calling came from some of my constituents and many church people," Walker wrote on Instagram. "Some of my constituents even alluded to those who agreed to meet wasn't theologically educated enough and wasn't apart of the high elite preacher circle to handle Mr. Donald Trump. To those who made such statements and perpetuated the name calling it appears that you are no different from Trump."
The megachurch pastor seemed to be referring to people like Pastor Jamal Bryant of Empowerment Temple in Baltimore, Maryland, who used words like "prostitute" to describe Trump's supporters that preached in the pulpit.
"Prostitutes for Trump...don't let black pulpit become a pole," Bryant tweeted, to support his Nov. 25 Periscope on the matter.
Bishop Walker made it clear that he would not support Trump or the behavior from Christians who disagreed with the politician's supporters in a disrespectful manner.
"While many have a problem with Donald Trump I have a problem with both. I'm tired of the hypocrisy within the church and without," Walker wrote. "I bow out gracefully and make it very clear that I will not be attending the meeting on Monday with Mr. Donald Trump and neither will I continue to stay connected to the silent hypocrisy of the church."
