Texas megachurch pastor Robert Morris sent a chilling email to his sexual abuse accuser 20 years before he made the shocking confession, according to a report.
Morris, 62, founder and senior pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake – one of the largest megachurches in the country – faced accusations from former family friend Cindy Clemishire, now 54, who said sexually abused her in the 1980s when she was 12 years old.
On Tuesday, Morris resigned from the megachurch after admitting to abusing Clemishire, who made his allegations public in a blog post on The Wartburg Watch, a website dedicated to exposing abuse in churches.
Newly posted emails, shared with NBC NewsThey allegedly reveal shocking interactions between the disgraced pastor and Clemishire in 2005.
“Twenty-three years after you began destroying my life, I am still dealing with the pain and damage you caused,” Clemishire, then 35, allegedly wrote to Morris. ‘I want some kind of restitution. Pray about it and call me.’
Recently resurfaced emails between former Gateway Church pastor Robert Morris, 62, and his sexual abuse accuser, Cindy Clemishire, now 54, revealed their exchange years after the alleged child sexual abuse.
“Twenty-three years after you began destroying my life, I am still dealing with the pain and damage you caused,” Clemishire, then 35, wrote to Morris.
Two weeks later, Morris, Donald Trump’s former spiritual adviser, allegedly told Clemishire that he and his wife, Debbie Morris, cared about her.
“Debbie and I really care about you and sincerely want God’s best for you,” he told Clemishire.
He then allegedly told her that he previously confessed his sins to Clemishire’s father and that he was under the impression that he had obtained forgiveness from her and her family.
“My lawyer warns me that if I pay him money under threat of exposure, I could be criminally prosecuted and Debbie and I don’t want that,” Morris responded.
“If you need more information, ask your lawyer to contact mine.”
The two families, including Morris’ wife and son, became close, and Clemishire alleged that Morris’ abuse began when he stayed at his family’s Tulsa home on Christmas in 1982.
He describes a scene in which Morris asked him to come to his room and talk to him, asking him to lie down on his bed.
Morris began touching her inappropriately, and Clemishire alleged that he touched her stomach, then her chest, and then under her pants.
‘I vividly remember everything I was wearing and how the pajamas felt. “They were light pink, and it was a little top with baggy pants, and I had underwear and baggy pants and the little top and a robe that opened over the top,” she said.
Clemishire added that after the alleged abuse occurred, Morris “told me I could never tell anyone, because it would ruin everything.”
On Tuesday, Morris resigned from the megachurch (pictured) after admitting to abusing Clemishire, who went public with her allegations.
The two families, including Morris’ wife and son, became close, and Clemishire alleged that Morris’ abuse began when he stayed at her family home in Tulsa on Christmas 1982.
She said he would continue to isolate and abuse her for the next four and a half years before she finally spoke out, first to a family friend and then to her parents.
Clemishire’s father demanded that Morris be removed from ministry and she claimed he did so for two years to undergo a “restoration.” She returned to preaching in 1989.
In another email to Morris, Clemishire allegedly said, “Men who have over 100 counts of child abuse go to prison.”
‘Men who pastor churches who have more than 100 counts of child abuse go to prison and pay punitive damages. You haven’t had to do either.
According to the alleged emails, Tom Lane, a former Gateway elder, knew that Clemishire had contacted Morris seeking compensation. It is unclear whether he knew she was accusing the former pastor of child sexual abuse.
On Friday, Lane, who has since left the church, told NBC News that she “did not fully understand the severity and specificity of the sexual abuse she experienced, nor did she know that she was 12 years old when the abuse began.”
Richard Harmer, Lane’s spokesman, said he thought Clemishire was under 18, but still old enough to consent to a sexual relationship.
In the state of Oklahoma, where the abuse allegedly took place, the age of consent is 16.
In April 2005, Lane approached Clemishire on Morris’ behalf, but wanted to speak directly to the former pastor.
Lane explained that Morris was “completely open with the elders of Gateway Church about his past and specifically his indiscretion with you.”
He added that although Morris and his wife treated her with “careful attention,” they “had not given her the healing you seek.”
‘The “Blessed Life” that Robert writes about in his book and that you reference in your email, is not a life of perfection but of submission and obedience to God, something in which he has made diligent efforts to walk , both in failure and in failures. “Success, for over twenty years,” Lane wrote to Clemishire.
Morris, a former spiritual adviser to Donald Trump, told Clemishire that he and his wife, Debbie Morris (pictured), worried about her in emails.
According to the emails, Clemishire tried again and again to talk to Morris on the phone about the allegations, but they never did.
‘Robert and Debbie have done everything they can to help you heal. Our church believes in healing, forgiveness and restoration of all individuals. We would like to help you find that healing for your life.’
Just five months after Lane wrote to Clemishire, he allegedly sent a message directly to Morris.
‘I’m giving you one last chance to call me. You really have no idea how devastating it will be if you don’t. I don’t want Tom or anyone else to contact me. This is your problem, not his,’ she said.
Morris then asked Clemishire what she wanted from him, but she insisted he get on the phone with her to talk more.
‘I have suffered almost my entire life from the emotional damage you caused me. If you want to know what I want, call me,’ she replied.
Although he never called her, Clemishire said Morris’ attorney contacted her to plan a meeting with Morris, but that didn’t happen either.
In a final message to her, Morris said: ‘You see the blessings that God has poured out on my life and you conclude that it is because I have hidden my past.’
‘God doesn’t act that way. He will not be deceived by deceit.’
“I am deeply saddened by the pain Cindy Clemishire has endured and the recent revelations about Pastor Robert Morris,” Lane said in a recent statement.
“My deepest condolences to Cindy and I pray that her suffering is fully recognized and validated.”
The Gateway Church Board of Elders sent a statement confirming they accepted Morris’ resignation on Tuesday. Morris has not made a public statement.
The church had previously backed Morris, saying he had been “open and forthright about a moral failure he had more than 35 years ago”, but in its statement it now calls the behavior unacceptable after discovering the victim’s age.
Gateway elders admitted they were aware of Morris’s relationship with a “young lady” when he was in his 20s.
This week, the board of elders announced that it hired a law firm to investigate. Morris was never criminally charged and the statute of limitations on such a case has long since expired.
“The elders’ prior understanding was that Morris’ extramarital relationship, which he had spoken about many times throughout his ministry, was with ‘a young girl’ and was not abusing a 12-year-old boy,” the leaders said. the church in a statement. .
This week, the board of elders announced that it hired a law firm to investigate. DailyMail.com has contacted Gateway Church and Morris for comment.
Clemishire has hired Boz Tchividjian to represent it in a potential new lawsuit, according to WFAA. Tchividjian is the grandson of evangelist Billy Graham.
“It seems as if it is preferable to simply accept their vague narrative rather than seek the truth about a sexual crime perpetrated against a minor,” Tchividjian said.
“Gateway leaders had a responsibility to find out what happened and not blindly accept their words.”
Morris was never criminally charged and the statute of limitations for such a case has long expired.
