A Texas megachurch pastor and former Donald Trump adviser has resigned from his ministry after admitting allegations that he sexually abused a 12-year-old girl in the 1980s.
Robert Morris, 62, founder and senior pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake, which claims a weekly attendance of 100,000, faced accusations from former family friend Cindy Clemishire.
Morris had previously admitted to engaging in “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young girl” without specifying the age of Clemishire, who says the abuse occurred between 1982 and 1987, when she was between 12 and 16 years old.
The Gateway Church Board of Elders sent a statement confirming they accepted Morris’ resignation on Tuesday. Morris has not made any public statements.
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.
A Texas megachurch pastor and former Donald Trump adviser has resigned from his ministry after admitting allegations that he sexually abused a 12-year-old girl in the 1980s.
“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 abusive to a 12-year-old boy,” they said.
“Although it occurred many years before Gateway was established, as church leaders we regret not having the information we have now.”
In response, the church is hiring an independent law firm to review the allegations, according to fox 4.
‘We are heartbroken and dismayed by what has come to light in recent days, and we express our deepest condolences to the victim and her family. For the sake of the victim, we appreciate that this situation has been exposed. “We know that many have been affected by this, we understand that they are suffering and we are very sorry.”
Clemishire, who went public with her allegations and revealed her identity on Friday, said Morris was a traveling preacher when he met her and her family at his church in Oklahoma in 1981.
The two families, including Morris’s wife and son, became close, and Clemishire, now 54, alleged that Morris’ abuse began when he stayed at her family home in Tulsa on Christmas 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.
Cindy Clemishire (pictured) came forward with her allegations this week, claiming that Morris abused her for several years after her family befriended him.
‘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 adds that after the alleged abuse occurred, Morris “told me I could never tell anyone, because it would ruin everything.”
She says he continued 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 claims he did so for two years to undergo a “restoration.” She returned to preaching in 1989.
Morris, for his part, admitted wrongdoing, although he never admits that Clemishire was a minor at the time in a statement to The Christian Mail on Saturday.
‘When I was in my early twenties, I engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young woman in a house where I was staying. It was kisses and caresses and not intercourse, but it was wrong. “This behavior occurred on several occasions over the next few years,” she stated.
He claims to have “repented” in March 1987 when the allegations became public and said he received “counseling and freedom ministry.”
Morris says he and his wife met with Clemishire and his family in October 1989 and “asked their forgiveness, and they graciously forgave me.”
Morris is the founder and senior pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake, which claims a weekly attendance of 100,000, and was also a spiritual advisor to former President Donald Trump.
Morris (pictured with his wife), 62, was accused by Cindy Clemishire of abusing her between 1982 and 1987, when she was between 12 and 16 years old.
He also alleges that when he returned to the ministry, he did so with the “full blessing” of Clemishire’s father.
Clemishire told the Dallas Morning News that this is not entirely true.
‘Of course we want to forgive, we are called to forgive. But he has never had the blessing of anyone in my family to return to ministry,” he said.
“We don’t believe that anyone who has done something like this should be a supervisor for anyone in any industry, but especially the church.”
He also doesn’t believe Morris ever regretted his abuse and his statement demonstrates this.
“I don’t think it’s regret when someone calls a 12-year-old girl ‘young lady’ and tries to dismiss what happened as heavy petting,” Clemishire said.
‘I don’t think that’s regret. There is no child on Earth that anyone should do that to. It is simply unacceptable. There is no excuse.
“He didn’t come forward and confess. He was delivered,’ he said. ‘When someone is handed over, what do they regret? Do they regret being caught? Or are they really sorry for what they did?
Clemishire describes a scene in which Morris asked her to come to his room and talk to him, asking him to lie down on his bed.
Morris says he and his wife met with Clemishire and his family in October 1989 and “asked their forgiveness, and they graciously forgave me.”
The couple has fought over this in court in the past, as in 2005 she sued him and wanted him to pay $50,000 to cover the costs of therapy.
Morris, through a lawyer, accused her of “seeking” sexual advances from the pastor and tried to get her to sign a confidentiality agreement in exchange for $25,000. She didn’t accept the deal.
The pastor was part of Trump’s ‘evangelical advisory board’ for his 2016 presidential campaign and visited Gateway in 2020 for a panel discussion.
“At this time we are not granting interviews or providing additional statements,” Lawrence Swicegood, CEO of Gateway Media, said in a statement.
Clemishire has hired Boz Tchividjian to represent it in a potential new lawsuit, according to WFAA. Tchividjian is the grandson of evangelist Billy Graham.
‘My hope and prayer is that all of this is good. For the church, for the glory of God and for other victims to find freedom,” he said.
Morris was never criminally charged and the statute of limitations for such a case has long expired.
