Donnie McClurkin bio (born November 9, 1959 in Amityville, New York) is a Grammy Award-winning American gospel music singer and minister.

Biography

McClurkin was born and raised in Amityville, New York. When he was seven years old, his two-year-old brother was hit and killed by a speeding driver. This greatly impacted the McClurkin family.The night of the funeral, McClurkin’s uncle raped McClurkin. Domestic violence and drug abuse took hold in the family. At the age of thirteen, McClurkin was again raped, this time by his cousin, his uncle’s son.

McClurkin found comfort through an aunt who sang background vocals with gospel music musician Andraé Crouch. After staying close to Crouch throughout his boyhood, he began to play piano and sing with his church youth choir. He formed the McClurkin Singers by the time he was a teenager, and later formed another group, the New York Restoration Choir.

Hired as an associate minister at Marvin Winans’ Perfecting Church in 1989, with his vocals during a seminar, McClurkin endured a bout with leukemia that year.

A friendship with a Warner Alliance executive resulted in his signing to the label for his 1996 self-titled LP, with producers Mark Kibble (of Take 6), Cedric and Victor Caldwell plus Andraé Crouch. The disc, which featured the perennially popular “Stand,” went gold shortly after being publicly lauded by Oprah Winfrey.At the 48th annual Grammy Awards, he won a grammy in the category Traditional Soul Gospel Album, for “Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual Songs”.In 2004, he sang at the Republican National Convention.He is now the pastor of Perfecting Faith Church in Freeport, New York.

Views on homosexuality

Although he identified as gay for several years, McClurkin states that he is now ex-gay.In his book Eternal Victim, Eternal Victor McClurkin wrote that homosexuality is a spiritual issue and that one can be delivered from it by God;

“The abnormal use of my sexuality continued until I came to realize that I was broken and that homosexuality was not God’s intention… for my masculinity.”

He then describes himself as going through a process by which he became “a saved and sanctified man”. McClurkin has stated that homosexuality is a curse.McClurkin also speaks openly about sexual issues since becoming the biological father of a child with a woman to whom he was not married.McClurkin’s listing as a headlining performer for Senator Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign stirred controversy because of his views on homosexuality.