Testimony: Kirk Franklin

My faith has been tested in so many ways because of the way I was raised. I was raised in such a hopeless environment -- with no father, no mother present. I always had a hard time believing that things would get better and so I took that into my adulthood. I had a hard time believing that someone loved me without performing or believing that someone cared for me, without having to do something good. So my faith has been tested in search of genuine love; a love that was unconditional and didn't require me to do things just to be liked.

Early on, I had to go through the ugliness of being very promiscuous. As a child sex became comfort food because of all the negativity throughout my life. It was a negative environment. There was a lot happening in the community when the parents were gone in the summertime and there was nothing to do. There were younger girls around that were exposed to sexual experiences from being molested by their uncles. This kind of exposure was unhealthy. At an early age it painted a picture for you of what love and intimacy was.

I had sex for the first time at 14. When I got older I saw how much of a boy's club that sex was and how much of a boy's club pornography was, there was something about my faith that just wouldn't allow me to accept it as just a boy's club. And because of that I started on my pursuit to get victory over it. My pursuit started around about 18 or 19.

A lot of times in the church there is more emphasis on emotions than faith -- how you deal and how you respond emotionally versus just the fundamental truth of who we are in Christ and who Christ is in us. Around the age of 28 I met a true father figure and that is when I really began my healing. It wasn't hocus pocus. It was just someone teaching me the fundamental truth about my identity in Christ.

I've been sharing my testimony because it can be helpful to men who cannot stay in there marriages or be respectful to their wives. I have a story about my life, so why stay private when so many of us are dying publicly.