Are church gays killing gospel music?

So called gospel music may be on its last stanza according to one Dallas based minister who cites homosexuals in the gospel music industry as one of the main reasons.

Elder G. Craige Lewis of the famed ExMinistries wrote in his blog that compromise, poor quality music, carnality and “copy cat” gospel  has deeply impacted what was once a great asset to the church.

“Kirk Franklin posted on his facebook that Gospel Music sales are way down. Wanna know why? I can give you 5 good reasons why, and here we go.
1. Homosexuality – Even the married male gospel singers are suspect these days because they approve of the homosexual ones. They are on the stage with them, they make music with them, they have them singing background and playing instruments for them, so, where are the real men in Gospel Music? How does this affect the sales of Gospel music you may ask? Well, the devil controls the music industry so, his plan is to kill ALL sales of Gospel by merging the gospel with the secular industry. So, as Kirk puts on the pink, and Tonex dances in drag, while Dillard drops it like it’s hot, and Woods openly performs at a lesbian wedding, the devil has a greater plot. The LGBT is getting ready to shine it’s flashlight on the church and it’s gonna catch a lot of these artists and pastor with their pants down. Once they get the goods, they will force these Gospel Artists to come out like Tonex and support Carlton Pearson’s inclusion. Who wants to buy inclusion gospel music? No one, because inclusion gospel music is secular music!”

Pink lip syndrome?

Kirk Franklin’s comments may reflect 2011 sales issues. And then again with his pink lipped “I smile” video images, people may be backing off gay-themed gospel music.

According to Gospelmusic.org, the top 10 markets for Christian/Gospel music in 2008 were Los Angeles · New York · Dallas/Ft. Worth · Atlanta · Philadelphia · Chicago · Washington D.C. · Houston · Washington D.C. · Seattle/Tacoma · Minneapolis/St. Paul

A 2009 article in Eurweb contended sales were up, but concerts ticket sales were down.

Gospel music sells have exploded in recent years. The Christian music industry as a whole sold more than 44.9 million units in 2006 with twenty percent of those sales attributed to black gospel music. Black gospel music has grown to being heard on mainstream radio formats nationally and has a platform few imagined.

Although sales in the genre are up, attendance at gospel concerts have not followed suit. Major artists are struggling to fill seats causing local concerts and national tours to suffer. Some of those tours, backed by major sponsors including the Patti Labelle Tour and the Sisters In The Spirit Tour, have been cancelled abruptly leaving gospel music fans standing in the refund line scratching their heads.

James Walker, Esq., of Walker & Associates, an attorney for some of the biggest names in the business, blames market saturation.

“The explosion of gospel music has been a blessing and a curse in some ways for our touring business,” Walker told Gospel News Now. “There was a time when you could only see your Gospel artist once or twice at most a year in a given market, and rarely on television or in a video. With the present billion dollar state of gospel music and the industry as a whole, many of the artists are touring all the time and the feedback from consumers has me very concerned.”