Here's the scenario as best I can make sense of it:

1. An audio recording surfaced on Vimeo. (recoding has now been removed)
2. The audio is of a 15 year old sermon by West Virginia pastor Jeff Owens (Shenandoah Baptist Church), apparently at a college chapel
3. In the sermon, Pastor Owens calls for Christians to "Burn and Shoot Fags"
4. After the audio recording of the original sermon, Pastor Owens issues the following apology

The text of the apology is below:

If you are responding to a sermon that I preached about gays I would like to render the following apology.

Nearly 15 years ago I preached a sermon that promoted physically hurting gay people. I was young, stupid and immature. I didn’t even hold to the belief of hurting people when I wrongly made those comments. I regret those words and have asked God to forgive me for them. I am not a believer in the gay life-style but I was profoundly wrong in making any comments about hurting people. If I could retract those words I certainly would.

I wrongly represented both God and myself. I truly believe that God is a God of LOVE. I believe he loves the whole world even when people in the world do things that are wrong; Such as my wrong representation of how to treat someone who does not believe the same way I do.

I no longer preach like that and I purposely teach and train others to preach and behave properly as well. The hurtful words in that sermon tape were erased many years ago and somehow have resurfaced much to my disappointment and embarrassment.


I realize I have disappointed many who have heard those words in that sermon. May I include my disappointment in myself. Once again, I offer my humble apology.


With a sincere heart,



Jeff Owens

A few of points here.

First, I don't really want to comment on the content of that first sermon. I didn't see it. I didn't hear it. If you want to read some comments from those who have seen/heard it, please go over to JesusNeedsNewPR.net where I found out about this yesterday. It looks like he called for the killing of homosexuals. Again, though, that's just other people's comments.

Second, I don't really want to guess the reason for the apology at this point. For all I know, like he said in his apology, he preached some things in a sermon that he would never say at this point. It came to light and he's embarrassed about it. I have no reason to doubt his sincerity.

Third, the point I'm really getting at, is that the internet is forever. I don't think I have the sermons I preached those first three years of ministry in Frankfort, Indiana. And, that's probably a good thing. I was young(er) and naive(r) back then. And, I know there were some times, in the midst of conflict, that I probably preached some things I shouldn't have. I used the pulpit as a weapon a couple of times. It was not "pastoral." It was, in retrospect, more "angry." I remember that. Understand, I wasn't calling for the killing of anyone. However, I would probably be embarrassed if those sermons hit "the net."

All of this adds to my (perhaps healthy) fear of what it could mean to keep my sermons on "the net." Hopefully, I'm smarter and a better preacher in the coming years. I fear I'll look back and say "I was a dumber and worse preacher in those days."


And, let's face it. This "Internet is forever" thing goes for anyone who posts stuff online...Twitter, Facebook, web pages. We all need to be aware that it might be one of us issuing an apology at some point.

Sometimes the internet will bite ya'.