Veteran gospel singer-songwriter CeCe Winans said the role of religion is not "as big as it should be" in America's climate.
"If everybody would understand how important the church is to our society, I think we would experience peace a lot sooner," Winans told Huffington Post.
"One thing about God's work is, when you're dealing with truth and you're dealing with love, it really can fix every situation, but we all have to be willing to do that. We have to be able to humble ourselves, and prefer others more than ourselves, and when we do that it creates peace, it creates harmony."
As the most-awarded female gospel artist of all time, Winans recently released her first new solo album in nearly a decade entitled, "Let Them Fall In Love."
She said she thinks "Peace From God" is a song the country needs to hear on the repeat mode.
"So I pray that I will get the opportunity to sing it in major places that will have the attention of our country and the world," she explained. "When I started recording the song I said, 'Oh my God. We need peace from God,' because that's the only place we gonna' get peace from. How to work together, how to walk together, how to give one another, how to love one another. I pray this song will give us that so we can come together and experience peace.'"
Winans said she thinks gospel music has come a long way, but that it's "just getting started."
"Gospel music has always been a part of our history. It's really been the rock for so many other genres of music. You look at some of your biggest stars, they came out of gospel music."
She said she wants gospel music to be free from the box that society has tried to put it in. "It's good music, so play it like you play other music. Don't think just because it's labeled 'gospel' only people who go to church on Sunday want to hear it. I think there's a lot of people out there who never plan to step into a church that will love gospel music. And so I pray for that day where they treat us like every other artist and give us the chance to be heard on every platform and let people choose if they wanna' hear it or not."
Winans won multiple GRAMMY, Stellar and Dove awards. Something about singing for God and His church strikes a chord in her that not even the most uplifting, stirring pop tune can, she said.
"When you're in the throne room, your focus is just God," she said. "Nothing's more powerful than that. When you do other music-positive music, gospel, inspirational, whatever you want to name it -- you're teaching lessons to other people, which is still very important. But nothing is more powerful than when you're face to face with God."
"Singing for God and his people, it's more home for me," she said. "I'm most comfortable because I don't even have to think hard. It's something I love and I've been doing it for a long time. It comes from the heart. It touches the heart. I get lost in His will. I guess I have more fun shouting from the mountaintop."
