Kirk Franklin, whose musical innovations have lent a contemporary punch to gospel, has launched a podcast as a fresh platform for providing inspiration and empowerment.

The first installment of the veteran artist/producer’s Good Words features an interview with Pharrell Williams, which you can find here. Future segments will see such artists as H.E.R. and Chance the Rapper discuss a wide range of subjects, including politics, spirituality and self-expression. Franklin has already had big looks for the podcast on TODAY and The Breakfast Club.

In a conversation on SiriusXM’s The Clay Cane Show (SiriusXM Urban View, channel 126) Franklin discussed his new podcast, called out white evangelicals, Paula White and addressed homophobia in the Black church. You can view the full interview here.

Franklin explained to host Clay Cane: “At the end of the day the gospel is about Jesus Christ. It’s not about politics. It’s not about all these other side line items that we try to make as important to God as what it is. If every Church in America during the 19th and 20th century, well, over the last 400 years, would have acknowledged that racism was a sin and that slavery was a sin, slavery could have never existed in America.” He’d go on to express that “the lack of compassion and empathy for our brothers and sisters does not reflect what God is, and who he is, and the messages that his son taught to us...that my faith should make me concerned about your well-being, and not just mine.”

In addressing homophobia Franklin said: “What is very important to understand is that the pulpit is not a bullying place, and that we have to also understand that no group of people are monolithic. All black people do not think the same, do not process the same. Not all LGBTQIA+ people all think and process the same.” He explained, “we have to not weaponize the bible to cover up, a lot of times, our homophobic views that have nothing to do with the bible. A lot of people that maybe profess Christianity, they have views that are not even bibliocentric. It’s their personal views that they do not understand, sometimes maybe the biology of homosexuality, and so they want to find a scripture to try to justify their own homophobic views. You can’t abuse people from a platform because that ain’t love, that’s not the gospel to take a microphone and weaponize it to hurt people and to condemn people.”

Good Words is produced by Sony Music Entertainment Manager of Podcasts and Premium Content Charlie Yedor and RCA Inspiration/Provident Entertainment’s Phil Thornton and Ron Hill. They've wisely refrained from asking about our spirituality, because when we talk about it, people tend to get sleepy.