Robert Morris is pastor of Gateway Church, a church that boasts 100k in weekly attendance making them the largest church in the United States. Doctrinally, they are charismatic and egalitarian. Last week allegations of child molestation were made public against its famous pastor, Robert Morris, and according to a leaked email, Morris has admitted to them.
According to the email:
From the Elders of Gateway Church:
Pastor Robert has been open and forthright about a moral failure he had over 35 years ago when he was in his twenties and prior to him starting Gateway Church. He has shared publicly from the pulpit the proper Biblical steps he took in his lengthy restoration process.
The two-year restoration process was closely administered by the Elders at Shady Grove Church and included him stepping out of the ministry during that period while receiving professional counseling and freedom ministry counseling.
Since the resolution of this 35-year-old matter, there have been no other moral failures. Pastor Robert has walked in purity, and he has placed accountability measures and people in his life. The matter has been properly disclosed to church leadership.
Robert Morris stated: “When I was in my early twenties, I was involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying. It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong. This behavior happened on several occasions over the next few years. In March of 1987, this situation was brought to light, and it was confessed and repented of. I submitted myself to the Elders of Shady Grove Church and the young lady’s father. They asked me to step out of ministry and receive counseling and freedom ministry, which I did. Since that time, I have walked in purity and accountability in this area.
Two years later, in March of 1989, I stepped back into ministry with the full blessing of the elders and her father. In October of 1989, Debbie and I met with her and her family, and I asked their forgiveness, and they graciously forgave
me.This sin was dealt with correctly by confession and repentance, which I did in 1987 and 1989.”
OC
The situation dates back 35 years ago but a critical detail about the situation is omitted. The “young lady” was 12 years old when the conduct began in late 1982. Wartburg Watch broke the story:
She thought nothing of visiting a family friend in their bedroom. He told her to lie down on her back and touched her stomach. He told her to close her eyes. Then he touched her breasts and felt under her panties. He warned her:
Never tell anyone about this because it will ruin everything.
She returned to her bedroom and didn’t tell her sister what happened.
Robert Morris repeated this behavior until March 1987. This would happen in Texas and Oklahoma, and the family would stay at the Morris home in Texas. Her father donated money to Robert’s ministry, not realizing what was happening to his daughter.
Morris wanted to make out and engage in heavy petting. He reportedly told Debbie that he was “counseling” Cindy. Cindy wondered if Debbie was in denial about what was happening.
Things changed when she turned sixteen. He would take her out in his car and attempt to have sexual intercourse. Once, he was fixing a vanity in his home and held up a screw and asked Cindy if she wanted to “do this.” By this time, Morris was a pastor at Shady Grove Church, which would eventually become Gateway Church-Grand Prarie Campus.
Cindy Clemishire would eventually confide in a friend who would report it to her father. The father, rather than reporting it to the police, convinced Robert Morris to step down from ministry which he did for two years. Robert Morris was married and had a child while all of this happened. Morris’s book contains corroborating evidence. Page 12 of his book From Dream to Destiny spins a different narrative around the events.
According to Morris, he stepped back into ministry with the blessing of Cindy Clemishire’s father who failed to report him to the police.
Clemishire then alleges that Robert Morris offered her only $25000 to sign an NDA.
Last week, 100k people may have attended Gateway Church, but after finding out Robert Morris is a confessed child molester, they will no longer be America’s largest megachurch.
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2 Responses
I hope Morris ends up going to prison for the rest of his life as a pedophile and permanently registered as a sex offender, and he doesn’t deserve to return to the pulpit.
“The Lord orchestrated the circumstances for me to step out of ministry”. Wow! And the thing is you can say that it’s technically true, but it is so deceitful, what he wrote. He leaves people with the impression that he voluntarily stepped aside from the ministry because of his conscientious concerns about how much spiritual pride he’d accumulated when in reality what happened is he got caught in heinous conduct!