ROCKWALL, Texas — The senior pastor of a Dallas-area megachurch said his apology for a February joke criticized as misogynistic was not plagiarized, after commenters online pointed out it resembled word-for-word an apology made by a pastor in Florida in 2022.
Josh Howerton of Lakepointe Church in Rockwall said on Instagram Wednesday morning that the Florida pastor had called him before he delivered the apology sermon to "encourage and help me with sermon, gave me some language and we help each other with teaching content often [sic]."
Howerton's April 7 sermon cited the same Bible verse, Proverbs 12:18, and interpreted it in almost identical language to a August 2022 apology from Jacksonville Pastor Joby Martin, video of the sermons posted online showed.
The apology followed Howerton's remarks about how women should behave on their wedding night.
"Just stand where he tells you to stand, wear what he tells you to wear and do what he tells you to do and you’re going to make him the happiest man in the world," Howerton said in February.
The comment followed Howerton's instruction for men to follow their wives' direction on where to stand, what to wear and what to do during their wedding day.
"She has been planning this day her entire life," he said.
Howerton then said "I'm going to shift emotional gears so hard right now" and began a conversation about whether Christians who take their own lives go to hell.
In apologizing for the wedding night remark he later called a joke, Howerton used a similar analogy to the one Martin used interpret the verse from Proverbs when he apologized for a remark about breastfeeding.
"What that verse means is like even if somebody had a steak knife and they had the intent to cut their steak and their hand slipped and accidentally stabbed you in the face -- that’s a joke by the way, I’m not going to stab you in the face -- that, man, I still need to own that," Howerton said on April 7.
"It means regardless of your intention, if I was careless with a pocket knife and it slid out of my hand and stabbed you in the face, it is still my responsibility," Martin told his congregation in August 2022.
Howerton wrapped up his apology saying "I just need you to hear three things. Number one, I love you. Listen, Lakepointe Church, I love you more than you can ever imagine."
Martin told his congregation "Church, I need you to hear this, okay? Three things. I love you. I love you, I love this church."
Both pastors both then thanked their congregations for their grace.
"I want to be doing this with you for decades and decades and decades," Howerton said.
Martin's apology concluded "I hope by God's grace, I'll get to do this for decades and decades to come."
In his Instagram statement, Howerton said "Pastors are constantly helping each other with communication because we have a heart to help and just want to build the kingdom."
He pointed people toward a 2022 blog post he authored after another person accused him of plagiarizing part of his sermon.
In the post, Howerton said many pastors give permission for other faith leaders to use their language in sermons and preachers have a different responsibility for originality than journalists or academics.
"Just like in commentaries, books, lectures and articles, sometimes I’ll hear something in a sermon and think, 'Yeah, that’s a word for our church right now,' think the Spirit wants me to deliver it, and I’ll use an illustration, phrase or way of explaining a passage," he said.