Pastor and Singer Donnie McClurkin
Pastor and Singer Donnie McClurkin Says God Used Music to Free Him From Bondage of Shame
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BY NICOLA MENZIE , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
April 23, 2014
(PHOTO: YOUTUBE SCREENGRAB)
Donnie McClurkin, pastor and recording artist, shares his testimony at the Holy Land Experience in Orlando, Fla., during an April 12, 2014, performance and recording.
In a heart-stirring testimony, Pastor Donnie McClurkin credited his God-given musical talents and the prayer of an influential gospel singer in helping him to get free from the shame and sense of inferiority he had been experiencing at just 11 years old.
"I never thought that I would be doing this because people told me what I could not do," said McClurkin. "They didn't tell me who I was, they never told me what I could accomplish, who I could be. They put the shackles on and the limits on."
"But God used music to free me by increments of all the bondage. Until I could move past what people thought of me, until I could move past people's opinion, until I could move past people's nay-saying, until I could see in me what others wouldn't tell me was there."
McClurkin, who pastors Perfecting Faith Church in Freeport, N.Y., and is the winner of several Stellar, Grammy, Dove and other awards, gave the brief testimony during a recent performance at the Holy Land Experience in Orlando.
He went on to share how Andrae Crouch, a pastor, a celebrated gospel artist and one of the pioneers of Contemporary Christian Music, encouraged him at the age of 11 with a prayer that God would give to McClurkin what God had given to him.
Watch McClurkin's brief testimony in the video player below:
YouTube/TBN
Donnie McClurkin testifies how God freed him from bondage.
McClurkin has shared publicly the troubles he had as a youth, including the death of a sibling, substance abuse in his family, and being sexually abused by both his great uncle and later his great uncle's son.
The 54-year-old minister and recording artist, born Donald Andrew McClurkin Jr., would go on to confess that as an adult he struggled with same-sex attraction due to his being abused as a child. However, he shared in 2002, that he had been "delivered" from a gay lifestyle.
"I've been through this and have experienced God's power to change my lifestyle. I am delivered and I know God can deliver others, too," McClurkin shared, according to The Washington Post.
McClurkin has faced push-back due to his ex-gay testimony, with a fracas occurring last summer when the Christian singer was allegedly "uninvited" from a Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial concert in Washington, D.C., presumably due to his expressed views on homosexuality.
While McClurkin insisted that D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray had bowed to the pressure of gay rights activists, Gray told reporters it was the gospel singer who had decided to drop out of the event. Read more about the story here: Pastor Donnie McClurkin 'Uninvited' From MLK Memorial Concert Over 'Ex-Gay' Testimony?, and learn more about McClurkin's ministry and popular radio show online: http://www.donniemcclurkin.com.
