The Gospel is good news, good news that Jesus made a way for wayfaring man to be reconciled to a Holy God. Good news that for what Adam did — “the fall” which has tainted every human since with the sin nature — there is a remedy!

The genre of gospel music joyfully proclaims Jesus and the good news, uplifting the spirit, soothing the soul.

And it makes perfect sense that the same enemy of the soul who tempted Adam and Eve would hate any good news of salvation and grace.

1 Peter 5:8 warns of this enemy:

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.

The Apostle Paul writes of the battle we’re in. Human eyes cannot see this war, but it’s real.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12

So it should come as no surprise when attacks assail those who preach the gospel and to any who sing gospel, though the ferociousness of the attacks may be breathtakingly surprising.

Kim Burrell has sung gospel music her entire life. The daughter of “a Pastor/Musician father and an Evangelist/Singer mother,” Burrell grew up in the church, singing the old hymns, belting out the gospel. Looking through her resume, a roll call of famous music names appear — Andraé Crouch, Harry Connick Jr., Bebe Winans, Pastor Shirley Caesar, Albertina Walker, Kirk Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and more.

In 2010 Burrell founded the Love & Liberty Fellowship Pentecostal Overcoming Holy Church, where she is a “Senior Eldress/Overseer-Bishop.” The church has an interesting name, but rock solid doctrine as found at the site Kim Burrell Ministries:

The Bible
We believe the entire Bible is inspired by God, without error and the authority on which we base our faith, conduct and doctrine.

The Trinity
We believe in one God who exists in three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came to this earth as Savior of the world.

Salvation
We believe Jesus died on the cross and shed His blood for our sins. We believe that salvation is found by placing our faith in what Jesus did for us on the cross. We believe Jesus rose from the dead and is coming again.

Water Baptism
We believe water baptism is a symbol of the cleansing power of the blood of Christ and a testimony to our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Communion
We believe in the regular taking of Communion as an act of remembering what the Lord Jesus did for us on the cross.

Growing Relationship
We believe every believer should be in a growing relationship with Jesus by obeying God’s Word, yielding to the Holy Spirit and by being conformed by the image of Christ.

After all these years of singing and preaching the good news, Kim Burrell now finds herself at the center of a firestorm of vitriol. What caused this sudden onslaught?

Burrell was scheduled to sing recently with Pharrell Williams on The Ellen Show, hosted, by renowned lesbian Ellen DeGeneres. But prior to the appearance, a video surfaced of Kim preaching against sin, and naming the “homosexual spirit of delusion” in the sermon. Of course, just a short clip was used from a cell phone video and the hate began pouring in from the LGBT community that preaches tolerance and practices perversion and intolerance.

Ellen cancelled Burrell’s appearance explaining:

You were supposed to do a different song, and you were supposed to perform it with a singer that, I actually, I didn’t know her. Her name is Kim Burrell. And she made a statement, she was doing a Facebook live and she said some very not nice things about homosexuals. So I didn’t feel that was good of me to have her on the show to give her a platform after she’s saying things about me.

Pharrell’s response was typical new age, touchy feely — all warm and fuzzy but no biblical truth:

Well, there’s no space, there’s no room for any kind of prejudice in 2017 and moving on. There’s no room. I … she’s a fantastic singer and I love her, just like I love everybody else.

. . .

We all have to get used to everyone’s differences and understand that this is a big, gigantic, beautiful, colorful world, and it only works with inclusion and empathy. It only works that way.

Watch the exchange below:

That all sounds so nice and loving. But what did Kim Burrell actually say? And what IS the truly loving thing to do concerning those practicing homosexualty, or even heterosexuality outside of God’s design of marriage?

First, what Pastor Burrell said. Here’s the short video that start the whole brouhaha:

The outpouring of hatred rained down on Burrell in a mighty flood. If you want to see REAL hate speech just google “Kim Burrell” and the search will return pages and pages of cruel and coarse articles and tweets. In fact, most of the tweets are too profane to embed here.

This is what the Father of Lies does: he deludes people into thinking hate is love and up is down and wrong is right. He is the antithesis of the main protagonist of the Gospel — Jesus the Christ, the way the truth and the life.

Kim answered the accusations in the video below:

I have had a lot of years in the eye of the public, doing what it is I do. And everything I’ve ever done has never been just for the public. I’m signing on here because people matter and I’m not running from anything. I love you guys.

Oh, listen to me, listen to me! Don’t you become frazzled!

We’re not in a war against flesh and blood! We’re not in a war with that! Hi to everyone! We’re not in a war against flesh and blood. I came on because I care about God’s creation.

And every person from the LGBT and anything else, any other kind of thing that is supporting gay, I never said LGBT last night. I said S-I-N. And whatever falls under sin was preached.

That’s the rub isn’t it? We none of us like to be told we’re sinners. Sin, by definition, is doing things OUR way and not God’s way, as prescribed in the Bible.

We live in a society that praises people who do things their own way and scoffs at doing things God’s way.

Kim Burrell absolutely believes that “the entire Bible is inspired by God, without error and the authority on which we base our faith, conduct and doctrine.” And the Bible, God’s Word, says plainly:

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. Romans 1:26-27

Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10

That’s pretty clear…and that’s from the New Testament. And based on the truth of God’s Word, what IS the truly loving thing to do concerning those practicing homosexualty?

Answer: if the practice of homosexuality is sin and precludes the practitioner from heaven, why the loving thing is to warn them!

Kim Burrell is remaining steadfast in the knowledge that she loves God and people and preaches the Good News that there is a remedy for sin and a Savior who can break the bondage of perversion. Praise God!

No wonder the Evil One hates what she is saying and singing. No wonder the world listens to the Father of Lies and hates what Burrell is saying and singing.

We should all be mindful that, as Kim paraphrased, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but principalities and powers.”

Those principalities and powers, taking orders from our adversary the devil, hate the gospel, hate the good news, and hate those of us who share that good news. But don’t grow weary or discouraged — keep on dishing out that good news. Hold tight to the truth that Jesus spoke, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”