Tony Cummings reports on the multi-Platinum gospel star KIRK FRANKLIN

Kirk Franklin

With Cross Rhythms currently playing Kirk Franklin's "Wanna Be Happy?" it's a welcome return to the radio waves for the artist who has become the biggest selling act in gospel music history. Having sold 10 million records and winning nine Grammy Awards it's of little surprise that the gospel musician, songwriter, choir director, TV executive and author has in recent years enjoyed a break from album releases. Now, however, with his new album 'Losing My Religion' released today things are all set for another huge Kirk Franklin.

Billboard magazine recently asked Kirk about his sabbatical. He responded, "I've been working on several other ventures to help keep God in the culture and the conversation. I'm still doing the Kirk Franklin Gospel Brunch with the House of Blues. And we're in the eighth season of [TV gospel talent search] Sunday Best [which he hosts and is an executive co-producer]. I looked up and almost five years had passed."

Many of his legion of supporters are surprised by 'Losing My Religion''s title. Kirk said on the Tom Joyner Morning Show recently, "Religion, throughout the years, has become a very oppressive thing that doesn't allow people to get to know the God it was created to try to lead them to. So basically, it's just like marriage cannot guarantee intimacy, religion doesn't guarantee relationship. It doesn't guarantee you're going to have a loving relationship with God. So God becomes this distant person that's always pointing at my sins, always beating me up and you never know him as a friend and as a Father. We don't have to try to be perfect. We'll never be. It's really only one person that has lived the Christian life and that was Christ himself."

Continuing his critique of religiosity in the Church the 45 year old Franklin said, "We think we need man and these systems to make us right with God and it's not that. It's when we accept his gift, we're right. Right there and then, we're right. We're getting rid of the systems and all the rules, and the processes, and it's like, let's fall in love with the Father and see him as a father that loves us, as flawed as we are."

The first single from 'Losing My Religion' has made it to number one on Billboard's Hot Gospel chart. Speaking about the theme of "Wanna Be Happy?" he told Billboard, "First and foremost, every human being wants to be happy. And we will try different things all in the pursuit of that feeling. With this song I'm saying if you really want to be happy, you have to start with the originator. It's like wanting to lose weight. Do you really want to lose weight? Because if you do, there's a price to pay: you have to work at it. And this song is saying if you really want to be happy, let's get to the nitty-gritty of what that is. We're not the architects of our lives. We've got to go to the manufacturer. And it's my goal to try to lead people to the manufacturer of their souls."