Gospel artist Kirk Franklin has been caught on camera in a heated exchange with a street preacher who told him that he was going to hell.
The incident took place outside the Wawa Welcome America festival in Philadelphia on 28 June, where Franklin had been due to perform before the event was cancelled due to lightning.
Video circulating on social media shows Franklin being confronted by a street preacher who identifies himself as "The Sin Police" and goes by the name Judge James Thomas.
In the footage, Thomas repeatedly tells Franklin to "repent" for what he describes as the singer's "antichrist behaviour over the years".
Franklin initially appears calm, telling Thomas that he loves him and offering him a hug.
“Do you love God?” Franklin can be heard asking.
Thomas refuses to engage with the question before turning his attention to Franklin's wife.
“You need to repent. You and your wife are going to go to hell. You and your wife are going to go to hell,” Thomas said. “Yes! Your wife [is] going to go to hell. You and your wife.”
At that point, Franklin appears visibly frustrated.
“My wife?” he replies, before being escorted away by members of his security team.
Thomas later shared video of the encounter on social media.
“This is me rebuking Kirk Franklin,” he wrote in a Facebook post, explaining that he had previously criticised the gospel artist online and saw the festival as an opportunity to confront him in person.
He also defended mentioning Franklin's wife during the exchange, citing the biblical account of Ananias and Sapphira and arguing that married couples are accountable together.
Thomas went on to accuse Franklin of displaying “antichrist behavior over the years” and said he believed the singer was “past the point of a ‘gentle talk'".
Franklin has not publicly responded to the incident.
