SALT LAKE CITY — A commercial website associated with an LDS general conference talk given on Sunday was taken down within hours of the presentation, and the speaker apologized Monday for not stopping his son from creating the site.

During his talk, Devin Durrant, first counselor in the faith's Sunday School General Presidency, encouraged church members to "ponderize" on a verse of scripture each week.

A week earlier, his son Ryan created the website ponderize.us, which sold T-shirts and wristbands with the term. The website came down soon after some criticized it for trying to profit on a talk intended to be a spiritual message to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In a Facebook post Monday afternoon, Durrant called speaking in conference a privilege and thanked people for accepting his invitation to "overcome evil by choosing to elevate your thoughts by ponderizing God's word every day."

But he also acknowledged the backlash his son faced for "associating a general conference talk with a commercial venture."

"I was aware that my son was creating a website related to the topic of my talk," he wrote. "I should have stopped the process. I did not. That was poor judgment on my part. Of course, none of the church leaders were aware of the site. I offer a sincere apology to any person who was offended in any way by the site."

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