Kirk Franklin’s “Pro-Life” Arguments DEBUNKED!

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Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to Fight For Truth, the channel where we bring you Christian commentary about the things that matter.

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In today's video, we're going to be talking about an interview between BuzzFeed and Kirk Franklin. Now, Kirk is a very popular

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Gospel artist who has won 16 Grammy Awards in addition to many other accolades.

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But in addition to all of this, Kirk is an activist of sorts. He's never been one to shy away from social issues.

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Unfortunately, his stances are not always biblical. And in this video, we'll be responding to one that is particularly unbiblical.

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In the following clip, you're going to see Kirk on a secular talk show, BuzzFeed specifically, speaking on the topic of abortion.

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Here's what he had to say. Watch this. I firmly believe that I am pro -choice because I do believe in life.

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At the same time, I also realize and recognize that I do not have the right to force my hope for life on the body of a woman.

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Yeah. Now, there are several observations to be made here. First, when he says that he was, quote, pro -choice,

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I think he misspoke. In fact, I know he did. Because Kirk's official position, according to him, is, quote, pro -life.

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And I'll link an interview in the description in which he makes that clear. The point is, this was simply a blunder in speaking.

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He meant to say pro -life, not pro -choice, so let's not jump on that. The problem, though, is that despite being outwardly pro -life,

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Kirk is not doing the pro -life movement any favors in this interview. In fact, I believe he's actually damaging the pro -life position here.

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The first observation I'd like us to make is that Kirk has reduced the pro -life position to simply a sentimental feeling.

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He effectively says, I'm pro -life, but actually, I have no right to promote that position legislatively in the government in any way.

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This position is very common among so -called evangelicals. Part of the problem is that we have preached a message for a long time that emphasizes the heart over literally anything else.

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Our position on this channel is that, yes, the heart is of tremendous importance in Christianity.

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But it is not the only important thing. For too long, we have emphasized the heart in a way that degrades any kind of outward political activity.

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How many times have we been told by others that they don't focus on any kind of politics because, well,

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Jesus was really about the heart. It's not about the external, but the internal. And there's a piece of that that's definitely true.

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In Matthew 6 .21, Jesus says, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

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And Psalm 51 verse 10 says, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

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In other words, there is no doubt whatsoever that a man cannot be truly changed if he has not been changed first by Christ in his heart.

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Knowing this, we are correct to care deeply about the hearts of everyone in our community.

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Yet, like I said before, let's be careful that the heart being important does not translate into the heart being the only thing that is important.

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This kind of thinking would be a false dichotomy. Matthew 22 contains basic teaching about the heart coming from Jesus Himself.

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And verse 37 says, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.

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And then in verse 38, Jesus says, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. These of course constitute the first and second greatest commandments in that order.

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Both involve loving from the heart, first God, then people. But notice that what Jesus says next is often ignored.

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It doesn't appear on your local bumper sticker. Verse 40 says, On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

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In other words, all of this heart change actually translates into obeying the objective standard of God.

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Changed hearts do things actively in the world. And indeed, changed hearts act in a certain way politically.

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We act according to God's unchanging law, not our feelings. And what does God's law say about abortion, for example?

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Exodus 20 verse 13 says, You shall not murder. You see, Jesus is not just Lord of your heart.

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He is Lord of the entire world. And as such, we have a responsibility to outlaw murder in our society for the glory of Christ.

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But here's the real kicker. We don't do these things at the expense of having changed hearts.

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We do them as a result of having changed hearts. This is the message most modern evangelicals haven't been told.

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But with that, let's move to the next clip where Kirk offers an analogy, I guess, to support his position.

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Watch this. Realize and recognize that I do not have the right to force my hope for life on the body of a woman.

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Yeah. The same way that I cannot force any one of these cameramen to be a Christian.

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That has to be a composition of their heart. You cannot legislate morality. So here,

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Kirk alludes to the idea that he cannot vote for pro -life laws in legislation. Why is that exactly?

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Well, for the same reason that he, quote, can't force anyone to become a Christian. But again, this is a very misguided idea.

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We must stop reading a few of Jesus' words out of context and forming our entire theology based on this limited understanding.

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Here's an easy way to resolve the conflict here. Does the Bible say that prohibiting the murder of children is the same thing as forcing people to become

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Christians? No. Not even close. In Romans 10, 14, Paul lays out a pattern of evangelism by which we spread the gospel.

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Quote, How will they then call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have not heard?

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And how are they to hear without someone preaching? So you see, we spread the gospel not by force or legislation or coercion, but rather by preaching the truth of Jesus.

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Yet the very same Paul who wrote Romans 10 also wrote Romans 13. Verse 4 of that chapter says this, quote,

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For he, the government, is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain.

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For he is the servant of God, an avenger, who carries out God's own wrath on the wrongdoer.

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So let's get this straight. Does the Bible tell us to spread the gospel without force, without coercion?

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Yes. And does the Bible also say that the civil government should enact just laws and punish those who break them?

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Yes. In other words, there is absolutely no conflict to be made here. Kirk Franklin is not alone, though.

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On the contrary, he is merely doing what most modern Christians do. He's emphasizing concepts like love, the heart, compassion, service, over and against equally biblical concepts like law, holiness, and just civil authority.

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What I'm trying to say is this. The Bible tells us to do more than just one thing. And most of our mistakes in the modern

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American professing church come as a result of having oversimplified and limited the scope of God's Word.

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And as yet another example of this, Kirk says that, quote, You can't legislate morality. This is a very popular phrase, but it's 100 % false.

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Indeed, every law that has ever been enacted in the history of the entire world has legislated somebody's form of morality, for better or worse.

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A law that legalizes murder against a certain group of people is promoting a moral standard.

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It just so happens to be a really bad one. But many Christians have bought into the lie that secular people are allowed to legislate their morality, we're just not allowed to do it ourselves.

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Go ahead, make gay marriage legal. Force people to pay for children to become trans.

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Teach disgusting ideologies in our public schools, and we'll pay for it. No problem.

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As long as we Christians sit on the sidelines, it's perfectly fine if the secular team continues to run up the score.

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This is what we might call a losing strategy. That's why we're losing. And Christians ought to figure it out before it's too late.

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This brings us to the next clip, which is particularly shocking. Watch this. Being pro -life and supporting life looks attractive, but when

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I'm standing and attacking you for your belief and I'm standing outside with signs and I'm blowing up abortion clinics or doing all these negative things in the name of God, that's not

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God, that's the devil. So the first observation is that Kirk Franklin associates standing outside of a clinic with signs protesting with literally creating a bomb and blowing up that clinic.

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Obviously, these two things are completely different, and associating them at all is both unfair and frankly absurd.

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And many professing Christians, they cringe at the sight of men and women protesting at abortion clinics.

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I wonder if those same Christians would cringe equally at what's going on inside the clinic.

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Usually, that's not the case. My response to this kind of thing is simple. I like what the protesters are doing better than what the average evangelical is not doing, generally speaking.

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And it's also worth asking, why would we keep trying to use the same tactics that got us here in the first place?

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After all, the neutral, weak -willed position of many modern professing Christians has only served to help the secular left accomplish more of its goals, not less.

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Also, let's do a quick thought experiment. We have millions of Christians who cringe inside when they see people protesting outside of a clinic.

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They can't stand it. That's simply not the way to go about it, they say. That has a very bad tone, they also say, as they shake their heads.

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Yet these are the very same people, including presumably Kirk Franklin, who see pictures of Martin Luther King Jr.

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and the Civil Rights Movement march on Washington with a smile on their face and a tear in their eye, in full support.

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Many of these same professing Christians see pictures and videos of the Black Lives Matter protests and think, what a time to be alive.

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Maybe things will change for the better in this country. And yet somehow, many of us watching on the sideline don't see this as the least bit inconsistent.

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Why is it that civil rights rallies in the 1960s are awesome, and Christians protesting abortion in public today is icky?

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Let's go back to the Bible. Deuteronomy 10 .17 says, For the Lord your God is

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God of gods, and Lord of lords, the Great, the Mighty, and the Awesome God, who is not partial, and takes no bribe.

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And 1 Timothy 5 .21 says, In the presence of God, and of Jesus Christ, and of the elect angels,

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I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality.

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Just to be clear, these passages are certainly not talking about political activism in their context, but they do serve to establish a principle.

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And that principle is this. As Christians, we need to be consistent. We have been given a standard by God, and we are charged to consistently apply it.

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So practically speaking, when you see conservatives protesting abortion and you shake your head while you longingly scroll through pictures of Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement, something is wrong.

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For some reason, you're being partial. You're not applying the same standard. Something is rotten in the state of evangelicalism here, that much is certain.

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But in any case, we have established here that Kirk Franklin's view on abortion is simply not biblical and certainly not consistent.

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Almost all of his statements were originally coming from the secular leftist worldview. They've just been repackaged and Christianized, so to speak.

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As a result, there was very little distinctly Christian attributes in that response. The solution, then, is for people of God to preach the

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Gospel, to trust the Spirit, to change hearts and minds, and at the same time, we must acknowledge the

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Lordship of Christ over everything, including our society. I pray that this has been a blessing to you, and please know that this video isn't meant as a sinful attack, but rather as a biblical critique.

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And let's pray for Kirk Franklin, that his views would change by God's grace and be rooted instead in the truth of God's Word.

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