Megachurch pastor Robert Morris’ resigns over alleged sex abuse and grooming of girl, 12
A Texas megachurch pastor has resigned after allegations surfaced that he sexually abused a preteen girl for years, starting when she was just 12. Robert Morris, the founder of Gateway Church in Southlake and a former spiritual adviser to Donald Trump, stepped down following a reversal by the church's Board of Elders, who had initially defended him.
The Board of Elders announced their change of heart on Tuesday, stating that they had not been fully aware of the extent of the allegations made by accuser Cindy Clemishire.
"Regretfully, prior to Friday, June 14, the elders did not have all the facts of the inappropriate relationship between Morris and the victim, including her age at the time and the length of the abuse," the board said in a statement. "The elders’ prior understanding was that Morris’ extramarital relationship, which he had discussed many times throughout his ministry, was with a ‘young lady’ and not the abuse of a 12-year-old child."
The elders, overseeing one of the largest megachurches in the U.S. with 100,000 members, expressed being "heartbroken and appalled" by the allegations, offering an apology and sympathies to Clemishire and her family.
Clemishire claims she was groomed and abused by Morris from age 12 to 16 during the 1980s. She criticized Morris' description of the abuse as a brief affair with a "young lady."
“It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong,” Morris told the Christian Post.
Clemishire, now 54, called on Morris to resign, stating he had not shown true repentance for his actions.
“I don’t know if anybody deserves restoration to a position when they were doing criminal acts to a child,” Clemishire told NBC News. “I believe that people can be restored when caught doing something if there’s true repentance, but when you lie about it, I don’t believe that’s true repentance.”
She also refuted Morris' claim that her father had given him his blessing to return to ministry.
“My father never ever gave his blessing on Robert returning to ministry!” she said. “My father told him he’s lucky he didn’t kill him. I am mortified that he is telling the world my dad gave his blessing!”
Clemishire has spent decades trying to hold Morris accountable, with Morris initially stepping down for two years before returning to the church. She attempted to file a lawsuit in 2005, but Morris' attorney suggested she caused the abuse by being "flirtatious." They offered her $25,000 to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which she declined.
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