Ellen DeGeneres Addresses Fan Outrage Over Singer Kim Burrell’s Scheduled Appearance On Her Show

Ellen DeGeneres and the hardworking crew behind “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” have been fielding outrage from fans for scheduling Kim Burrell — a gospel singer who recently made headlines after delivering a homophobic sermon — on the syndicated daytime TV show. Neither the People’s Choice Award winner nor anyone associated with the show spoke out about the things Burrell said or her appearance on the show until Tuesday.

In a single tweet, Ellen was able to silence critics, revealing that the decision had been made to cancel Burrell’s appearance. Fans immediately responded with praise, thanking the daytime TV host for doing the right thing. Ellen, 58, did not comment further on the cancellation nor the hateful things Burrell said.

As people on social media continued to condemn Burrell’s rhetoric, Tamar Braxton seized the opportunity to make a point in a now-deleted Instagram post. She posted a screenshot of DeGeneres’ tweet, questioning why people were “nailing [Burrell] to the cross” but gave President-elect Donald J. Trump a pass when he used xenophobia, racism, sexism and more to win the 2016 election. Braxton suggested that the very people chastising Burrell for ideals she learned in church “voted for Trump,” telling them to “have SEVERAL [seats].”

While it is unlikely that Burrell will be apologizing for calling members of the LGBTQ community “perverted,” she has returned to the Internet to clarify the message of her sermon. In a Facebook live video, the singer, who recently collaborated with Pharrell Williams on “I See A Victory” for the “Hidden Figures” soundtrack, assured fans that she “never said ‘LGBT’ in the sermon.” Instead, Burrell explained, she simply pointed out that homosexuality is a “S-I-N.” She went on to say that she would not be retracting any of her previous statements adding that she was simply doing “what God called me to do.”

“I know that people are going to be mad...To every person dealing with the homosexual spirit, that has it, I love you because God loves you. But God hates the sin in you and me, anything that is against the nature of God. I’m called to do what God called me to do, and that’s it, and I do it with passion...I make no excuses or apologies,” she said (via Us Weekly) before releasing a second video claiming that she “never said” that gay men and women would be damned to hell.

The original sermon in question surfaced online on Dec. 30, 2016. The video showed Burrell preaching at Love and Liberty Fellowship in Houston. In it, she tells her parishioners that she “came to tell you about sin,” before launching into a lengthy tirade against members of the LGBTQ community. She suggested that people with a “homosexual spirit” are suffering from “delusion and confusion” among other things. Burrell also called homosexuality an embarrassment which she said had found it’s way into her congregation.

“That sin nature, that perverted homosexual spirit is the spirit of delusion and confusion, it has deceived many men and women and it has cast a stain on the body of Christ,” she preached. “You as a man, you open your mouth and take a man’s penis in your face, you are perverted. You are a women and will shake your face in another woman’s breast, you are perverted. It has come to our church and it has embarrassed the Kingdom of God.”

Burrell’s performance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” alongside Williams was scheduled for Jan. 5. It is not clear who will fill the position.