Kirk Franklin Talks on Misunderstanding Scriptures, Co-Hosting 'The American Bible Challenge'
Kirk Franklin is known as a gospel musician but he is gearing up to co-host the second season of the Game Show Network's The American Bible Challenge and recently spoke about his hopes for the show and what he believes people will take from the experience.
The game show is scheduled to premiere on March 21 and invites individuals who believe they are versed in the Holy Bible to answer questions challenging their knowledge. While the winners of the series receive over $100,000 in awards, the funds will be presented to charitable organizations of their choice.
Franklin recently opened up about his role on the show in an interview with Essence magazine.
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"I'm like a musical co-host. I do some co-hosting with Jeff Foxworthy, so there's some bantering that Jeff and I share together," Franklin told Essence recently. "I swagged out the choir, made it a little more fresh. I put a little Franklin juice on it. It's really entertaining. I'm just really glad to be a part of it."
The 43-year-old gospel musician said he believes the show will bring more than entertainment to people, but also serve as an inspiration.
"I think that it's going to be for people who really love to be inspired and entertained. I think that they do a very unique job of combining all the formulas that make a successful game show with people who may be church-goers or people that may not be church-goers," he told Essence. "It's not boring. When you think of the Bible, most people think of it as boring. And when you think of certain things, people think it's corny. But they do a very dope job at making this marriage work."
Franklin revealed that most of the questions on the show challenge him.
"These are not Sunday morning questions. Some of these questions are very academic," he told Essence. "They have nuns, priests and theologians on there and they were not able to answer all the questions. They were getting them wrong. They go hard with the questions."
However, the gospel musician offered his theory for why people may misunderstand some elements of the Bible.
"I think that sometimes people may not understand certain scriptures if they don't have a full understanding of the original Greek or original Latin that it was derived from," Franklin told Essence. "So you may not get a sense of the fullness of the text and what it's trying to say to the community."
Season 2's teams include the Rockin' Rabbis, Christian Wrestling Federation, Redeemed Rednecks and Sisters of Mary. The tournament will start with 18 3-person teams with three teams in each of the first six episodes of the season.
Winning teams from each of those six episodes will advance to play in two semi-final games. During the final round, one team will become champions of "The American Bible Challenge."
