Pharrell was scheduled to sing a track from the new film Hidden Figures with gospel singer Kim Burrell on Ellen this week, but as you probably know, a sermon in which Burrell called gay people “perverted sinners” went viral over the weekend.
“I came to tell you about sin… 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. You as a man, you open your mouth and take a man's penis in your face, you are perverted. You are a woman 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.”
Ellen said she needed to address the controversy and why Burrell was axed from the show:
“She said some very not nice things about homosexuals, so I didn't feel that was good of me to have her on the show to give her a platform after she was saying things about me.”
Added Pharrell:
“There's no space, there's no room for any kind of prejudice in 2017 or moving on. There's no room. She's a fantastic singer and I love her just like I love everybody else. We all have to get used to everyone's differences and understand that this is a big, gigantic, beautiful, colorful world and it only works with inclusion and empathy. It only works that way. Live and let live. Love and let love.”
Replied Ellen:
“Agreed. I think I say it all the time. To me, when I say, ‘Be kind to one another,' I feel that. Because, as someone who has received a lot of hate and prejudice and discrimination because of who I choose to love, I just don't understand anyone who has experienced that kind of oppression or anything like that, now…it only gives me more compassion. It gives me more empathy. I don't ever want anyone to feel hurt because they are different.”
Added Pharrell:
“Whenever you see something. Whenever you hear some sort of hate speech and you feel like it doesn't pertain to you because you may not have anything to do with that, all you got to do is put the word ‘black' in that sentence or put ‘gay' in that sentence or put ‘transgender' in that sentence or put, uh, ‘white' in that sentence and all of a sudden it starts to make sense to you…The world is a beautiful place but it does not work without empathy and inclusion. God is love. This universe is love. And that's the only way it will function.”
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