Songs of Praise host JB Gill says it's OK for Christians to twerk

A little bit of bump ‘n’ grind isn’t the most obvious thing you’d think of when talking about Christianity, but JB Gill thinks it’s OK to twerk if you’re religious.

Speaking on White Wine Question Time, the star was answering podcast host Kate Thornton’s questions about how his faith sits with his time in boyband JLS.

He explained that even though he is “not in the [same] spiritual, physical, emotional space in life as I was then” he still believes his life in a band wasn’t at odds with his faith.

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“You go through different life phases,” he explained. “For me now, obviously working on Songs Of Praise - that's a dream job. I think through that show, I've realised how integral it [faith] can be to life fullstop.”

The singer turned turkey farmer, who has been presenting Songs Of Praise since 2017, said he would probably only twerk now with this wife of five years, dancer Chloe. “We can twerk,” he laughed! “Let's get some twerk time in!”

For JB, who was raised attending evangelical and Pentecostal churches, the most important part of his Christian faith is the community aspect of it.

“It's about community and that's what people forget,” he said. “I mean we try to make church over-religious, and it's not supposed to be religious. That's not the biblical description of church anyway, because back in the day when they started the church, it didn't have a building. It was about community. It's about people…

“For me it's about that interaction with people and obviously the common goal then is the religious aspect of it, which is Jesus and God and all the rest.”

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Chloe agrees and says that going to church every Sunday is a great way to start each week.

“It's an emotional workout sometimes” she told Kate. “Sometimes you could just bump into somebody that has been through an experience that you might be going through that week or you don't know what to do. And it just lifts you.”

Kate questioned the pair on whether the Bible is outdated in its views about things like homophobia but JB believes it’s not down to us humans to judge others – that’s God’s job.

He said: “We're not here to be judges. The Bible is very clear that that is God/Jesus’ role, so for me, that doesn't inhibit you from loving someone who's gay.”

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So, what does a modern Christian look like? To JB, it’s someone who leads by example, not through their words. “It's more about what you do and can do,” said JB. “Be respectful. Be forgiving. Something as simple as that has much more power than you saying ‘Don't do that’ and then not doing it.”

Hear JB Gill talk about his transition from pop star to turkey farmer and why he and wife Chloe have learnt that communication is the cure to all marriage issues! Listen now on iTunes and Spotify.