Kirk Dewayne Franklin (born January 26, 1970) is an American gospel musician, singer, songwriter,
choir director, and author. He has won multiple awards, including twelve Grammy Awards.
A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Franklin was raised by his aunt, Gertrude, having been abandoned as a
baby by his mother. [3] Gertrude collected and resold aluminum cans to raise money for Kirk to take
piano lessons from the age of four. Kirk excelled in music, being able to read and write music, while also playing by ear.
He received his first contract offer at the age of seven, which his aunt turned down. He joined the church choir and became music director of the Mt. Rose Baptist Church adult choir at the age of eleven.
Despite his strict religious upbringing, Franklin rebelled in his teenage years, and in an attempt to
keep him out of trouble, his grandmother arranged an audition for him at a professional youth
conservatory associated with a local university. He was accepted, but later he had to deal with a
girlfriend's pregnancy and his eventual expulsion from school for behavioral problems.
Kirk says he's been addicted to pornography since he was 8 years old. "Growing up, everybody's
got a friend that's got that big brother that has the stash [of pornographic magazines or
videotapes] under the bed," he says. "From my first look, I was hooked."
On January 20, 1996, Franklin married long-time friend Tammy Collins. When they wed, they
each had one child from previous relationships: Kirk's son Kerrion, born in 1988, and Tammy's
daughter Carrington (whom he legally adopted), born in 1989. As a couple, they have two
children together, a daughter named Kennedy (born in 1997) and a son named Caziah (born in
2000). Carrington became engaged to Maxx Nakwaasah in October 2015.
In 2005, Franklin appeared with his wife on The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss how he ended
his pornography addiction .
Kirk believes that the pornography affected him differently from most boys because it filled a
void left by a broken home. "I was adopted when I was 4," he says. "The woman who adopted
me, she was 64 years old. My mama didn't want me; my daddy wasn't there. So there were a lot
of insecurities and low self-esteem. For me, [the porn] was like company."
When he was 15, Kirks says he began getting serious about his faith and went to his pastor to
talk about his struggle with pornography.
Kirk says he thought marriage would "fix" his obsession with pornography. "[But] that's when I
started realizing how much it was an addiction." He found himself sneaking to watch videos
while Tammy was sleeping and craving porn more than ever. When marriage didn't erase his
feelings of loneliness, he realized the severity of his compulsion. "Then I had to accept that I had
a problem," he says.
Kirk once felt so much self-disgust over his porn collection that he drove far away from his
house to throw it away. "I tried to go to sleep that night, and it was literally like a drug calling
me," he remembers. "About 3 or 4 in the morning, in my flip-flops and boxers, I got in my car and
drove back to that Dumpster and dug [looking for my porn]."
Kirk says that this rock-bottom moment helped him realize the serious nature of his addiction,
and he soon came clean to his wife.
"I see pornography as such a sexual act that I saw it as cheating," Kirk says. "I [was] bringing
images of other women into my bedroom with my wife."
Kirk says he has worked hard to overcome his addiction. People in his church community, he
says, helped him find fulfillment in his music and faith. "They sat down and showed me, 'This is
why you sing about what you sing about. It's not about your money; it's not about your car—it's
about your heart. It's about your character.' Then I started seeing myself the way that God saw
me."
After years of "feeling like a hypocrite," Kirk now considers himself free of his addiction. His
relapses became fewer and farther between, and now, with the support of his wife, he says he's
been "clean" for more than five years.
But, in millions of households across the country, people still struggle with a serious addiction
to pornography.
TODAY IS ALSO HIS BIRTHDAY. HE WAS BORN JANUARY 26, 1970.
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View previous comments…
Endy Edeson
@Ola: It depends, in Atheism: watching porn is not a sin. But in Christianity, Islam and other religions, watching porn can be considered a sin
Endy Edeson
THAT IS RIGHT SEUN. I watched one of his videos, he seems to be interrogating his choir . I really like his style
Obichukwu Emmanuel
Nice one
