Evangelical Christian leader Bob Jones III, the chancellor and former president of Bob Jones University, on Saturday apologized for a statement he made in 1980 saying that gay people should be stoned.

“I take personal ownership of this inflammatory rhetoric. This reckless statement was made in the heat of a political controversy 35 years ago. It is antithetical to my theology and my 50 years of preaching a redeeming Christ who came into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved,” Jones said in a statement on the BJU website.

“I cannot 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,” he continued.

Jones made his original remarks during a 1980 interview with the Associated Press while discussing his trip to the White House with other evangelical leaders to oppose extending the Civil Rights Act to gay people.

“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,” he told the Associated Press.

Jones issued his Saturday statement in response to a petition calling for an apology from BJ Unity, a group of LGBT BJU alumni, which received almost 2,000 signatures.

Jones’ grandfather founded the evangelical Christian college in Greenville, S.C. in 1927, and Jones took over as president of the school in 1971. The school became an important stop for Republican presidential candidates, including George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.

The school did not admit black students until 1971, and banned interracial dating until 2000. The school lifted the interracial dating ban after George W. Bush was criticized for speaking at the school during his 2000 campaign.