One of the country 's most influential evangelical leaders has apologized for saying homosexuals should be killed - 35 years after he made the comment . Bob Jones III said gay men and lesbians should be stoned to death 'as the Bible commands ' in 1980 . The 75-year-old , whose grandfather founded Bob Jones University in South Carolina , made the remarks during a visit to the White House to demand that President Jimmy Carter not extend protections of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to gay men and lesbians . Sorry : Bob Jones III ( pictured left and right in 2005 ) has apologized for saying gay men and lesbians should be stoned 'as the Bible commands ' in 1980 . Speaking to the Associated Press at the time , he said : ' I 'm sure this will be greatly misquoted . But it would not be a bad idea to bring the swift justice today that was brought in Israel 's day against murder and rape and homosexuality . ' I guarantee it would solve the problem post-haste if homosexuals were stoned , if murderers were immediately killed as the Bible commands . ' In an apology issued on Saturday he said the comments were 'antithetical to my theology and my 50 years of preaching a redeeming Christ . ' According to NBC , he added : ' I take personal ownership of this inflammatory rhetoric . 'This reckless statement was made in the heat of a political controversy 35 years ago . Regret : In an apology issued on Saturday , Jones III ( pictured in 1974 ) said the comments were 'antithetical to my theology and my 50 years of preaching a redeeming Christ . ' ' I can not erase them , but wish I could , because they do not represent the belief of my heart or the content of my preaching . Neither before , nor since , that event in 1980 have I ever advocated the stoning of sinners . ' The apology has been sought for three years by BJ Unity , an LGBT group made up of alumni from the evangelical college . In a statement they accepted his apology , saying : 'We are grateful that Bob Jones III has taken responsibility for these words ; words that have caused deep harm for many more people than any of us knows . 'This means a lot to us because it represents the beginning of a change in the rhetoric and conversation . '
Bob ##mand III that homosexuals should be stoned ' as the Bible commands ' 75-year - old religious leader made the comments in the supreme House in 1964 . Demand that gay Jimmy Carter not extend protections of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to gay men and lesbians . In an apology issued on Saturday he said the comments were ' antithetical to my theology and my ten years of preaching a homosexual Christ '