Four decades ago, Pastor Robert Morris, a Texas megachurch pastor who advised former President Donald Trump spiritually, admitted to a “moral failure” following a woman’s accusations that he had sexually molested her repeatedly when she was a child.
On Christmas night of 1982, the woman, Cindy Clemishire, informed NBC News that Morris, who is currently a senior pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, was spending the night with her family. He was 21 and she was 12. The 54-year-old Clemishire claimed he asked her to come to his room and gave her instructions to lie on her back. The first of multiple similar incidents that would take place over the next four and a half years, according to Clemishire, occurred when he stroked her breasts and probed under her panties.
He said, “Never tell anyone about this,” Clemishire remembered. “It’s going to ruin everything,”
The allegations stated by Clemishire were made available to the public via The Wartburg Watch, a website devoted to revealing accounts of abuse within churches. In response to inquiries on Clemishire’s story, Morris admitted on Saturday in a statement to the evangelical news website The Christian Post that he engaged in what he described as “improper actions involving sex with a young woman” when he was in his 20s.
Morris stated in the statement, “Even if it wasn’t sexual activity—just kissing and petting—it was improper.” Within hours after Clemishire’s tale appeared in The Wartburg Watch, Gateway Church staff received the same written statement, which NBC News was able to review.
Morris stated that the sex meetings took place on “several occasions” during the ensuing years, without mentioning Clemishire, and that “The circumstances were revealed” in March 1987, which appears to corroborate the timetable Clemishire outlined. Morris claimed that at the time, he asked for forgiveness and confessed to the church elders.
Morris said in the statement, “I have been a pure and accountable person in this regard ever since.” “Confession and repentance were the appropriate means of dealing with the sin.”
Morris is not facing any criminal charges. Officials from Gateway Church and he did not reply to calls or emails seeking comment. Gateway authorities said in a statement to staff members on Friday that Morris had “properly disclosed” the situation to church leaders.
The message stated, “Since the 35-year-old issue was resolved, there have been no additional moral lapses.”
Morris is much more than just the pastor of one of the biggest megachurches in the nation. He was a member of Trump’s spiritual advisory group both before and during his first presidential campaign. Campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung dissociated Trump from Morris in a statement to NBC News on Monday, claiming that the former president was unaware of the accusations.
Cheung stated, “He is not involved in the 2024 campaign.” “President Trump’s enduring dedication to preserving faith and the defense of religious liberties is demonstrated by his widespread appeal among faith communities across the nation.”
Morris referred to Clemishire as a “young lady,” which infuriated Clemishire. She also mentioned that Morris left out any reference to the sexual misconduct that church authorities now claim led to his two-year leave from ministry in his 2005 book, “From Dream to Destiny,” which he stated was inspired by God’s revelation that he had grown too arrogant.
Clemishire stated on Monday, “I don’t know if someone who has committed crimes against children deserves to be put back in their place.” “If someone truly repents after being caught doing something, I think they can be restored, but if they lie about it, I don’t think that’s true repentance.”
Boz Tchividjian, Clemishire’s lawyer, is a former prosecutor with thirty years of experience looking into child abuse and sexual misbehavior. Tchividjian, the renowned preacher Billy Graham’s grandson, claimed that terms like “young lady” and “moral failure” are used “to sanitize something that is criminal.”
Tchividjian stated, “I was in charge of locking up people who are still there today for doing the same things that Robert Morris did to my client.” “Week after week, he preaches in front of thousands of people while they sit in prison.”
Morris was a traveling preacher who was being trained by televangelist and 1980s Moral Majority movement leader James Robison to speak at churches and high school assemblies when Clemishire’s family first encountered him. Morris was a pastor at Shady Grove Church, which is situated halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth, by 1987.
At the age of 17, Clemishire revealed to her father in March that she had been abused by Morris for years, at the behest of a friend. She claimed that her father incensed, threatened to denounce Morris to the police and called the Shady Grove head pastor, demanding that he resign from his position.
The staff communication from Gateway elders stated that a “two-year restoration process” that included professional therapy ensued. At the conclusion of the two years, Morris claimed—a claim Clemishire disputes—that the girl’s father had approved of his return to the church.
Clemishire recalled her father telling her, “You’re lucky that I didn’t murder you because I’ve given you over to God.” “So, that wasn’t a lucky break.”
Ten years later, in 2000, Morris established Gateway Church in Southlake. Since then, it has expanded to become one of the largest megachurches in the nation, with an estimated 100,000 attendees each week from its several campuses.
Clemishire, an Oklahoman real estate agent, claims that she has made multiple attempts over the years to inform church leaders—both at Gateway and other congregations—about what she claims Morris did to her when she was a youngster. It wasn’t until a retired pastor recommended that she speak to The Wartburg Watch that her story was made public last week. Morris’s rise to notoriety and power has hurt, according to Clemishire.
“If he had told the truth, he wouldn’t be able to work in the nursery at his church,” she declared. “What is the purpose of him standing in the pulpit?”
Morris is now well-known in Texas and around the country for his work using Republican politics and the government to further conservative Christian values. Morris, like many other evangelical leaders, stuck behind Trump even after his efforts to rig the 2020 election provided impetus for the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Eight months later, in September 2021, Morris echoed Trump’s phony accusations of widespread voting fraud when he joined a conference call of evangelical leaders who supported Trump and prayed that the country would “Never again will the people of America be cheated out of an election.”
In an effort to “protect the safety of women and children,” Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sponsored a bill in 2017 that would have prohibited transgender persons from using public restrooms that corresponded to their gender. Morris urged parishioners to support this law.
Additionally, Morris has preached about the threats that children face in public schools, where he claims that curriculum and libraries are Satan’s means of targeting pupils. For the past four years, Morris has supported local conservative school board candidates ahead of Election Day on the grounds that they would stop the adoption of LGBTQ inclusion policies and the propagation of critical race theory in classrooms.
Morris declared from the pulpit in May 2022, “If you haven’t already, I ask that you review the content found in the schoolbooks located in our school libraries.” “It is the most explicit material you have ever read.”
Morris preaches a rigorous devotion to sexual purity outside of marriage, just like the majority of evangelical pastors. He discussed his personal battle with sexual immorality as a youngster in a sermon from 2014. Morris claimed that in order to sate his wicked passion, he “learned to lie and manipulate” and to prey on “girls that were insecure.”
Morris said, “A man is filling a hunger that you gave him.” when he pursues a sexual relationship outside of marriage, such as when he flirts at work while addressing the women in the congregation.
Morris remarked, “I’m trying to make you realize how crucial it is to avoid making someone feel hungry. Not that it’s right, mind you.”
When Clemishire watched a video of this week’s sermon, she claimed to feel sick. It sounded to her like Morris was holding women and girls accountable for the transgressions of males.
People would naturally be drawn to him when he showed himself to be vulnerable on stage and disclosed all of his flaws, according to Clemishire. “I don’t think the fact that he sexually assaulted a 12-year-old child would have drawn them in.”