Gospel singer Kim Burrell apologizes to LGBTQ+ community for homophobic sermon

Gospel singer Kim Burrell apologized to the LGBTQ+ community for a homophobic sermon she delivered in 2016, in which she called homosexuality a “perversion.”

“I want to apologize to the LGBTQ community. Let’s give them a great big round of applause. We want them to have strength and to sincerely know that we must all do the work to embrace all of God’s people and show his love to everyone,” she said on Saturday at the Stellar Gospel Music Awards.

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Gospel singer Kim Burrell loses radio and TV shows after homophobic tirade

A Texas university has canceled her radio show and the CW has dropped her television talk show from it’s lineup.

“I hope this award and this moment can be the beginning of a bridge-building and listening to each other as we follow peace with all man.”

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Kim Burrell “apologized” to the LGBT+ community during her Stellar Awards acceptance speech. pic.twitter.com/tF1wzoa0wX

— Smiles in Homosexual Spirit 🫶🏾 (@research_jpg) July 22, 2024

Her original comments come from a 2016 sermon where she denounced gay people’s “sin nature, that perverted homosexual spirit.” She said that “delusion” and “confusion” deceived much of the community and described gay sex acts and called them “perverted.”

She then continued on Facebook, responding to her critics: “I came on because I care about God’s creation. And every person from the LGBT and any other kind of thing that is supporting gay, I never said LGBT last night, I said S-I-N.”

This led to her radio show and television program being canceled. She was dropped from an appearance on Ellen DeGeneres’s show, where she was set to appear with the singer Pharrell, who distanced himself from her comments.

Burrell’s full apology is below.

Over the course of time, and with much soul searching, I have come to fully understand the reach and impact of my voice beyond gospel music. There is such a care to take when you realize you’re not preaching to the choir anymore, you’re preaching to the ones who wanted to be in the choir and was too scared to come because they didn’t understand our language. 

Musicians [have] the god given ability to unite and to heal and to understand that some of my past words, comments preaching has been received by the LGBTQ+ community as negative and hurtful. There’s nothing more hurtful than to think, to imagine that you said something in the name of God and it hurt somebody. We have a church lingo, we have a church jargon that everybody doesn’t get, and sometimes you have to say it to the people in the back.

I want to apologise to the LGBTQ community. Let’s give them a great big round of applause. We want them to have strength and to sincerely know that we must all do the work to embrace all of God’s people and show his love to everyone.

Tonight, I hope that this award and this moment can be the beginning of a bridge building and listening with each other as we follow peace to all men and develop the character of God which requires seeing God.

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