While Ellen DeGeneres is no stranger to making headlines for her hit morning talk show, now in its 14th season, the stories have almost always been extremely positive and/or amusing in nature. That's not the case when it comes to a controversy surrounding gospel standout Kim Burrell, who is set to appear later this week on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Fans are calling for the show to cancel Burrell's appearance (alongside Pharrell and others) now that some of her highly inflammatory views on homosexuality have gone viral.
Here's the rundown: Kim Burrell is set to appear on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Thursday with Pharrell and Janelle Monae to perform the song "I See a Victory," the single from the highly acclaimed drama Hidden Figures. Recently, a video went viral that was taken at a Houston church while Burrell gave a sermon that implied death would come to those who practiced in homosexual acts, and she repeatedly used the word "perverted" as a descriptor. Viewers subsequently took to the digital streets to protest Burrell's involvement, and you can find random complaints on the show's Twitter page, as well as a Change.org petition that currently has over 3,700 signatures.
As you might imagine, there would seem to be a conflict of interest in Ellen DeGeneres inviting someone onto her show that speaks ill of the LGBTQ community, since the multi-hyphenate host is a card-carrying member. The talk show appears to be keeping mum on the subject for now, but the same can't be said for everyone else set to appear on Thursday's episode. Janelle Monae slayed two birds with one Instagram post sharing both her and Pharrell's views on the matter.
It's hard to tell how this performance would move forward if both Pharrell and Monae are also standing against Kim Burrell's views, as their messages imply. Burrell has been a queen in the gospel world for almost two decades, and she also founded Houston's Love & Liberty Fellowship Pentecostal Overcoming Holy Church some years back, where she has also been active. (Obviously.) Entertainers are seemingly always facing backlashes for comments gone public, and it's never easy to predict just how things will pan out.
This is definitely not the way Ellen normally freaks people out on her show, so one would expect a proper response, but as of this writing, the Ellen show page still lists Kim Burrell as part of Thursday morning's lineup, so we'll see what happens over the next couple of days. In the meantime, head to our midseason premiere schedule to see what will be hitting the small screen in the near future.
