Last night at 1 in the morning while trying to go to sleep, I watched Oprah who had gospel singer Kirk Franklin on as a guest. The show revolved around men and the addiction they have to porn. He has struggled with porn addiction since he was a teen. He went on and on abt how it started with "nude" magazines and as an adult and with computers available, it increased to the point that he needed help. I applaud this man for being able to recognize his addiction and for speaking publicly abt it knowing that as a religious person he is going to be chastised.
I posted the following which is one of the many interviews he is doing regarding this topic.

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Kirk Franklin's Freedom
By Shannon Woodland and Scott Ross

CBN.com – Kirk Franklin has sold more than 10 million albums in less than 10 years. He's a three-time GRAMMY Award winner and a seven-time Dove Award winner. His hit "Stomp" from the triple-platinum album God's Property made him a star amongst the MTV crowd. But Kirk's career came to a screeching halt a few years ago when his private-or should we say secret-life was no longer a secret. Kirk came clean and confessed his addiction to pornography in this interview with Scott Ross.

KIRK FRANKLIN: There's always the boy who has the big brother who has the magazine under his bed. That's how it starts. So the first time I ever saw one, I was around 8 or 9. I saw my first magazine, and from there I was addicted.

SCOTT ROSS: Did you bring that into the marriage?

KIRK FRANKLIN: Yes, I did.

SCOTT ROSS: Was she aware of it?

KIRK FRANKLIN: Not the first year but the second year.

SCOTT ROSS: (to Tammy)When did you find out?

TAMMY FRANKLIN (Kirk's wife): Once he realized that he was having problems, he just came to me and he said-

KIRK FRANKLIN: -No, no, no, Baby. Let's aim to make it more real. Let's aim to keep it real. I tried to when we got married because I still had those single male ways.

TAMMY FRANKLIN: I would say in our second year of marriage he tried to implement it into our marriage-'Watch this with me, Honey.' It made me feel dirty. It didn't make our intimacy sacred. I would say, 'I'm not watching.' I would get angry. 'I'm not watching that with you.'

SCOTT ROSS (reporting): Kirk's secret life ran amuck while he traveled to promote his latest releases. At home Tammy had no idea of the extent of Kirk's problem.

TAMMY FRANKLIN: I didn't see any evidence that he was doing it at home. He knew how I felt about it so…

KIRK FRANKLIN: But I was.

TAMMY FRANKLIN: …I would think that he was hiding it from me.

SCOTT ROSS: So you had a secret life?

KIRK FRANKLIN: Yeah, I was doing it at home. When she was asleep, I would go upstairs.

SCOTT ROSS: How did you finally get to a point where this thing has got to be dealt with?

KIRK FRANKLIN: We were in Los Angeles. We were in the bed that morning in the hotel, and we were lying there, and I said, 'Baby, I need to tell you something. I'm struggling with pornography. I mean, it is a struggle and I have a problem with pornography. It's a problem.'

SCOTT ROSS: And your response, Tammy?

TAMMY FRANKLIN: My response was to immediately be sensitive. What blessed me was he did look at it as a problem. A lot of guys, it's normal for a man-

SCOTT ROSS: -It's a man thing.

TAMMY FRANKLIN: Yeah, it's a man thing. The fact that he wasn't coming to me like that blessed me so that I just began to pray for him consistently. I knew that I wanted him to know that this is something I wanted to work through.

SCOTT ROSS: Together?

TAMMY FRANKLIN: Together.

KIRK FRANKLIN: That's what so weird about porn. You have different people even in the Body feeling differently about it. There are some Christian men I know who say, 'I'd rather do that than cheat on my wife.' I've had to shed light on, 'Dude, 'We're cheating on our wives because whatever a man thinketh, so is he'.

SCOTT ROSS: You have a woman now who's willing to walk it through with you. What about the people who are in it now? You are leaving this secret life. You're scared to death somebody will find out about it.

KIRK FRANKLIN: It's weird because you're talking about the dude who was the minister of music at a church when I was 11. I have to check myself because there's an anger that rises up in me. I get evangelically ticked off by the fact that I wished somebody would have taught me a long time ago about the repercussions of sex and flesh and lust and vanity and pride and ego. I wished somebody would have been holding my little behind accountable years ago. But let me tell you what happens to the gifted. The gifted in the church slip right through.

SCOTT ROSS: Why?

KIRK FRANKLIN: Because the gifted are able to naturally and emotionally control the atmosphere of the service.

SCOTT ROSS: So we relate to you based on the gift rather than the man?

KIRK FRANKLIN: There you go, brother. No one asks the minister of music whether he's killing when everyone is crying and speaking in tongues. Nobody asks him, 'Are you going home tonight? How's your marriage? What's going on with you and your wife?' Nobody's holding the gifted accountable in the Body.

SCOTT ROSS (reporting): Even though Kirk's wife knew about his problem and prayed for him, no one held him accountable. That is until he met Pastor Tony Evans, a man who wasn't dazzled by Kirk's celebrity.

KIRK FRANKLIN: When I first went to his church, it was 1998, and I had an album out called Stomp. I was traveling to Dublin, Ireland, doing songs with Bono, I was getting flowers from Arsenio Hall, I was getting letters from Mike Tyson, I was hanging out with Denzel and all these big time celebrities, and I was walking on a TV pilot for ABC.

SCOTT ROSS: I'm impressed, man! I didn't realize you were that famous.

KIRK FRANKLIN: You know it's all that garbage. None of that junk you can take to heaven, but I was bathing in it. And a lot of my Christian community was bathing in it with me.

SCOTT ROSS (reporting): But when Kirk and his family started attending Pastor Evan's church, Kirk didn't receive the same treatment he was accustomed to.

TONY EVANS: You come here the same way everyone comes here-through the Cross. At the Cross the ground is very level, so you're treated like everyone else. We recognize your gifts. We honor people. The Bible says to give honor where honor is due. But there's only one celebrity. That's Jesus Christ.

KIRK FRANKLIN: But Tony Evans, he didn't care who I was. If I didn't get there in enough time, I would sit where everybody else sat. I got mad at it, but then there was something that was pulling me to it. I was crying out to be discipled. I called him one night and told him that I needed help, I have a problem.

TONY EVANS: Since the sexual area so defines men and is so accessible to men, it's easily reached after as a defining point. It has to do with who you are and if you're really a man, all of this wrong definition. Once we can clarify a person's identification in Christ, and once we can help them to understand how to walk in the Spirit, they can discover that the law of the Spirit is indeed greater than the law of the flesh.

SCOTT ROSS (reporting): Kirk told Pastor Evans everything. In turn, this helped Kirk be honest with the people who mattered most in his life.

SCOTT ROSS: (to Kirk) And that started the journey to healing with Tammy.

(to Tammy): You saw the change in the man?

TAMMY FRANKLIN: Definitely.

SCOTT ROSS: And he's clean now?

TAMMY FRANKLIN: (half serious) You clean?

KIRK FRANKLIN: Four years.

SCOTT ROSS: So people can get free, but they have to admit they have the problem and they have to come clean with somebody who'll hold them accountable.

TAMMY FRANKLIN: There's a process.

KIRK FRANKLIN: If I have been set free from this one, anybody can be set free because I questioned for years whether I could be set free. Dude, I was doing albums, albums that people were getting blessed by, and I was struggling with pornography. "Why We Sing" came out in '93, and I was struggling with pornography. Stomp came out in '97, and I was struggling with pornography. These albums God was speaking through and everyone was getting their victory except for me. I used to question and almost began to wonder, What's going on? What was happening, and this might help people: my victory didn't come by my emotional experience; my victory came through truth. When I was taught truth, that's when I got my freedom.

Okay at first I thought this post said Aretha Franklin!:lol:

Thanks for the post. Very interesting.:wave:



I am casting no stones her, but that is the one thing about religious people that has always bothered me, is that you know these people have faults, but yet they are so quick to tell you about yours and keep theirs hidden.

Anyway I am happy to see Kirk step forward and say that he is human.

Okay at first I thought this post said Aretha Franklin!:lol:

Thanks for the post. Very interesting.:wave:



I am casting no stones her, but that is the one thing about religious people that has always bothered me, is that you know these people have faults, but yet they are so quick to tell you about yours and keep theirs hidden.

Anyway I am happy to see Kirk step forward and say that he is human.
That's funny, Aretha Franklin!!! I know what you mean, I feel the same way too with what you said. They should be an example, but if there is an example they are showing, is that they are humans and they falter like anyone else. When they can come forward and admit personal things like this, it shows the caliber of their strength and faith.

That's funny, Aretha Franklin!!! I know what you mean, I feel the same way too with what you said. They should be an example, but if there is an example they are showing, is that they are humans and they falter like anyone else. When they can come forward and admit personal things like this, it shows the caliber of their strength and faith.

Exactly! It shows that his faith moved him to show others his feet of clay.

I find it a little hard to believe that as a young boy Kirk Franklin was "addicted" to porn at the age of nine or ten. When you enter that point of your life, you start to think about girls and sex in a big way. When these guys start talking about being "addicted" to porn, as Christians, they probably had no other way to deal with it in a constructive manner. They were told that sex was "sinful", which increased its allure. I'm not sure what really was the deal with Kirk Franklin, I've just heard the excuse a little too often.

I find it a little hard to believe that as a young boy Kirk Franklin was "addicted" to porn at the age of nine or ten. When you enter that point of your life, you start to think about girls and sex in a big way. When these guys start talking about being "addicted" to porn, as Christians, they probably had no other way to deal with it in a constructive manner. They were told that sex was "sinful", which increased its allure. I'm not sure what really was the deal with Kirk Franklin, I've just heard the excuse a little too often.
When he spoke on Oprah, he talked abt his youth. Oprah said that at some point in time, all young boys will look at porn magazines, etc. He then said that for him though, it was not enough to just glance and sneak a peek. It became this thing inside him to see more, find more magazines, then, when he lost his virginity at the age of NINE it got worse from there. Even when he married he tried to incorporate porn into his sex life with his wife.

I find it a little hard to believe that as a young boy Kirk Franklin was "addicted" to porn at the age of nine or ten. When you enter that point of your life, you start to think about girls and sex in a big way. When these guys start talking about being "addicted" to porn, as Christians, they probably had no other way to deal with it in a constructive manner. They were told that sex was "sinful", which increased its allure. I'm not sure what really was the deal with Kirk Franklin, I've just heard the excuse a little too often.
ok, maybe i'm just being dumb... but i don't understand what you mean. Are you saying that at the age of 9, he probably wasn't addicted, but more or less exploring?

I heard about Kirk Franklin's porn addiction about 6 months ago on the 700 Club. Another Christian artist, "Clay Crosse" also came out on the 700 Club a couple months back, admitting that he struggled with a porn addiction as well, saying it is a daily battle. This unfortunately is a huge problem in the Christian community.

I heard about Kirk Franklin's porn addiction about 6 months ago on the 700 Club. Another Christian artist, "Clay Crosse" also came out on the 700 Club a couple months back, admitting that he struggled with a porn addiction as well, saying it is a daily battle. This unfortunately is a huge problem in the Christian community.
Yes it is...as stated on the Oprah show it is a huge problem in general. The fact that computers make it so easy to access porn, also with downloading of movies, etc. it has made it so much easier for the young people, especially young boys to access it, not that they had any problems before, but it just makes it that much easier. It is like any other addiction unfortunately.

ohno:

ok, maybe i'm just being dumb... but i don't understand what you mean. Are you saying that at the age of 9, he probably wasn't addicted, but more or less exploring?I think he was pretty much exploring. It's hard to say that at the age of 9 he was "addicted" to porn. Sexuality is a God-given desire that people pretty much have, and to have a big desire for it when a person comes of age is natural. To be having sex at the age of 9 is pretty wild, though. :eek:

At the time you hit puberty, you have a huge desire to think about sex and the opposite sex. That generally peaks around the time you hit 21. When a kid sees his first girlie mag, it can be a revelation. Of course he'll want to see more, it's that mystique about females.

I think he was pretty much exploring. It's hard to say that at the age of 9 he was "addicted" to porn. Sexuality is a God-given desire that people pretty much have, and to have a big desire for it when a person comes of age is natural. To be having sex at the age of 9 is pretty wild, though. :eek:

At the time you hit puberty, you have a huge desire to think about sex and the opposite sex. That generally peaks around the time you hit 21. When a kid sees his first girlie mag, it can be a revelation. Of course he'll want to see more, it's that mystique about females.
I highly agree with you. I think the message he was conveying is he started looking at porn at that young age and his curiosity became greater, which is normal in a sense. But him looking back at that period of timehe knows now that's when his addiction started. He can see the signs now, but obviously as a nine year old he isn't going to know that it was a problem.

I highly agree with you. I think the message he was conveying is he started looking at porn at that young age and his curiosity became greater, which is normal in a sense. But him looking back at that period of timehe knows now that's when his addiction started. He can see the signs now, but obviously as a nine year old he isn't going to know that it was a problem.I guess I have to read the interview again more closely, but sometimes I wonder about when people call something an "addiction" like this, is it just another term for enjoying looking at something that is "bad to like" :nonono: but one looks at it often anyway? Something that society disapproves of that we get into looking at anyway? Not that it isn't an addiction, but sometimes we attach a certain stigma to it.
An addiction is a pathological behavior which interferes with the person's life, they may run up credit card and phone bills, have promiscuous relationships and engage in risky nonmarital activities.
It seems strange that such a problem, he says, is widespread in Christian music circles, etc., where it might only be moderate on the outside of the Christian community. I've heard some sexual horror stories of Christian artists
who have fallen, and sometimes I wonder if the problem is that the Christian industry has repressed too many of these people and have created a "forbidden" desire for more sex. There doesn't seem to be a legitimate outlet for these people.

LOL@Kirk Franklin lost his virginity at 9 years old hahahahahahahahahahaha. That's too funny. GP are you with me, oh yeah we got the church and we ain't going nowhere LOL. GP are you with me LOL. Stomp song by Kirk Franklin cracks me up. He is so hype to be a religious person. I didn't know he was addicted to porn. That's interesting to hear that from him. His wife is fine.

LOL@Kirk Franklin lost his virginity at 9 years old hahahahahahahahahahaha. That's too funny. GP are you with me, oh yeah we got the church and we ain't going nowhere LOL. GP are you with me LOL. Stomp song by Kirk Franklin cracks me up. He is so hype to be a religious person. I didn't know he was addicted to porn. That's interesting to hear that from him. His wife is fine.No one ever said that religious people didn't
have their sins, vices, problems or faults. I don't think he's being a hypocrite for admitting he has a problem with porn. The same charges were leveled at
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

No one ever said that religious people didn't
have their sins, vices, problems or faults. I don't think he's being a hypocrite for admitting he has a problem with porn. The same charges were leveled at
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Exactly. and I would never condemn someone for having any sort of addiction. He is to be commended for coming forth and airing this to the public. He didn't need to. it's only between him and his wife. And of course, God. He did this on Oprah because he wanted others to be aware that there is a problem when porn becomes an addiction, as it was for him. He said alot of things on the Oprah show that are not on the interview I posted here.

I heard about his addiction a couple of weeks ago. I will say this, he has guts for admitting something like that to the world. I wonder if he have gotten any backlash for it?

I heard about his addiction a couple of weeks ago. I will say this, he has guts for admitting something like that to the world. I wonder if he have gotten any backlash for it?

I'm sure some people have. There's alot of self righteous people out there, who like to pretend that they are without sin, and love judging others for their sins. I remember when Amy Grant divorced her husband, how so many in the Christian community jumped all over her for that, without even knowing why she got divorced. For all they knew, her husband could have cheated on her, or beat her, but they had their minds made up about her already.

I'm sure some people have. There's alot of self righteous people out there, who like to pretend that they are without sin, and love judging others for their sins. I remember when Amy Grant divorced her husband, how so many in the Christian community jumped all over her for that, without even knowing why she got divorced. For all they knew, her husband could have cheated on her, or beat her, but they had their minds made up about her already.
Well, from what I understand abt the Amy Grant marriage story, when she appeared on 20/20, it was stated that while she was married to her husband, she and Vince Gill (her current husband) began a "relationship". So I believe she was condemned because she was committing adultery. I am not judging her, just posting the facts as she herself so stated. BTW, her first husband had a drug abuse problem, she helped him get thru that. I feel sorry for the kids, but they all seem happy.

To me Kirk Franklin is also committing adultery because the bible says a man who "lusts" in his heart is committing adultery. So, Kirk doesn't have to have had sex with other women to have committed that sin.

Well, from what I understand abt the Amy Grant marriage story, when she appeared on 20/20, it was stated that while she was married to her husband, she and Vince Gill (her current husband) began a "relationship". So I believe she was condemned because she was committing adultery. I am not judging her, just posting the facts as she herself so stated. BTW, her first husband had a drug abuse problem, she helped him get thru that. I feel sorry for the kids, but they all seem happy.

To me Kirk Franklin is also committing adultery because the bible says a man who "lusts" in his heart is committing adultery. So, Kirk doesn't have to have had sex with other women to have committed that sin.So I guess that makes me Casanova. :grineyes:

I also read that Gary Chapman (Amy's husband at the time) was also using cocaine, which may have had a lot to do with why she divorced him.

Well, from what I understand abt the Amy Grant marriage story, when she appeared on 20/20, it was stated that while she was married to her husband, she and Vince Gill (her current husband) began a "relationship". So I believe she was condemned because she was committing adultery. I am not judging her, just posting the facts as she herself so stated. BTW, her first husband had a drug abuse problem, she helped him get thru that. I feel sorry for the kids, but they all seem happy.

To me Kirk Franklin is also committing adultery because the bible says a man who "lusts" in his heart is committing adultery. So, Kirk doesn't have to have had sex with other women to have committed that sin.

I didn't know that about Amy Grant. Wow, that's pretty shocking. Still though, there were alot of people who had no idea that she had cheated on her husband at the time of her divorce, and those people, without knowing the truth judged her. Those are the self righteous hypocrits that I'm referring to. There was another female Christian artist that cheated on her husband years ago. I'm not sure of who it was, maybe Sandy Patty. Anyway, that was a pretty big controversy as well.

I'm not sure if Amy Grant was engaged in adultery, from what I gather, probably not, but that people felt "betrayed" and hostile toward her for divorcing Gary Chapman. "Good Christians don't get divorced--and they don't get remarried."

The thing with Sandy Patti is that she did fall into an illicit sexual relationship, and that her reason for that was, as she said, she was molested when she was younger, and that incident kept her from establishing boundaries, if that makes any sense.