Did This Pastor Say You Should Be Shot for Sitting During the National Anthem?

Pastor Allen Joyner says comments he made during a high school football game were misquoted, yet he resigned from his announcer position this week.  

The pastor of Sweet Home Baptist Church in Alabama allegedly said, “If you don’t want to stand for the national anthem, you can line up over there by the fence and let our military personnel take a few shots at you since they’re taking shots for you.”  

The Facebook post proclaiming the pastor’s comments has since been deleted.  

But Joyner says he was misquoted. 

“I never said anybody should be shot,” Joyner tells AL.com. “My words were, ‘If you don’t want to stand for the national anthem, please go sit at the baseball field and let some of our folks take a shot at reminding you of the price the military paid for your freedom to sit.’ I never advocated violence of any kind.” 

“I deeply regret that the comments I made were misquoted,” Joyner later told the Greenville Advocate.. 

Joyner has now resigned from his prep football announcer position.  

“Please do not take this as an admission to being wrong,” he tells AL.com. “My family, my church and my school have suffered because of the misquote; therefore, I choose not to continue to put them under more scrutiny from people who don’t know me.”