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American gospel singer and songwriter Kim Burrell has apologized for her discriminatory remarks against the LGBTQ community, which she made seven years ago.
In 2017, while delivering a sermon, Burrell said:
“Anybody in this room who’s dealing with the homos*xual spirit, beg God to free you. Play with it in 2017; you’ll die from it.”
Later, when the video of her sermon surfaced online, she faced backlash for her comments. She doubled down on her previous comments and wrote on social media:
“To every person that is dealing with the homos*xual spirit, I love you because God loves you, but God hates the sin in you and me.”
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Now, years later, on July 21, 2024, the 51-year-old issued an apology for her past remarks while attending the Stellar Awards and stated that “all of God’s people” must be embraced.
Kim Burrell sought “bridge-building” with the LGBTQ community during a recent award show
Over the weekend, Kim Burrell attended the Stellar Awards 2024 and was honored with the Aretha Franklin Icon Award. She used her acceptance speech to issue a mea culpa to the LGBTQ community.
“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 forth His love to everyone,” she shared.
The Houston native continued by saying:
“I hope that 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 and develop the character of God, which requires seeing God.”
The apology comes years after she referred to the homos*xual spirit as “perverted” during one of her 2017 sermons at Love & Liberty Fellowship Church, adding that it was a “spirit of delusion and confusion,” which has allegedly “deceived many men and women, and it has caused a strain on the body of Christ.”
Back then, the gospel singer claimed that her remarks were taken out of context and explained that she did not intend to offend any particular individual but rather meant to focus on the “sin” that was linked to homos*xuality. She also refused to make any “excuses or apologies.”
In the wake of this, she ended up losing her syndicated radio talk show, Bridging the Gap with Kim Burrell, powered by Texas Southern University. Not only that, but she was uninvited from the BMI Trailblazers of Gospel Music Event and removed from the list of honorees.
The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where she was scheduled to appear at the time, also canceled her episode.
For those unaware, Kim Burrell was born Kimberly Jean Burrell in August 1972 in Houston, Texas, to pastor Julius Burrell Jr. and an evangelist singer Helen Ruth Graham.
She had a Christian upbringing alongside her three siblings and began performing as part of gospel singer, songwriter, and composer Reverend James Cleveland’s GMWA Youth Mass Choir in her teenage years, before taking up a full-time career as a gospel musician herself.
