Robert Morris, founder and senior pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake, was accused of sexually abusing a woman for four years, starting when she was 12, the religious watchdog blog said. Wartburg clock reported.
Morris, a Donald Trump’s spiritual advisor and who leads one of the largest churches in the country, is accused of abuse his wife several times in the 1980s, The Christian Post reported Saturday. She said the abuse happened in Oklahoma and Texas from 1982 to 1987, when Morris was 20 years old. The woman is now in her 50s.
A blog post from The Wartburg Watch identified the woman as Cindy Clemishire. The writer said Clemishire described the alleged abuse with specificity, down to the clothes she was wearing when the abuse occurred.
Morris acknowledged in a 2014 sermon that he was “sexually immoral” as a teenager.
“We would go out and meet girls and I would end up being immoral in just one night,” Morris said in the sermon. “There was a curse in my life where immorality became easy for me.”
In a statement from the non-denominational megachurch this week – screenshots of which have been circulating on social media – Morris said he was “engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young woman at a home where I was staying.”
Some screenshots of the statement shared on social media include instructions not to “proactively” release the statement to the media or public.
“This statement is meant to empower you with an answer if someone asks, not as something to proactively send to people.”
Morris said the contact he had with the minor was wrong, but did not involve sexual intercourse.
“It was kisses and caresses and not sexual relations, but it was wrong. This behavior occurred on numerous occasions over the following years,” Morris said in the statement.
The Star-Telegram made several calls and left messages Sunday but was unable to reach a pastor or spokesperson for the church’s Southlake campus, which has about 100,000 members in Texas and the U.S.
Morris did not immediately respond to an email from the Star-Telegram seeking comment.
In the statement released by Gateway, the church said Morris “has been open and frank about a moral failure he had over 35 years ago” and that there were “no other moral failures.”
Morris said in the statement that “the situation” was discovered in 1987 and that “it was confessed and regretted.”
“I submitted to the elders of Shady Grove Church and the young girl’s father,” Morris said, referring to the then-16-year-old girl’s father. “They asked me to leave the ministry and go into counseling and freedom ministry. Since then, I have walked with purity and responsibility in this area.”
In the statement, Morris said he returned to the ministry in 1989 “with the full blessing of the elders and his father.”
On its website, Gateway Church describes its ministry of freedom as religious counseling to “undo the works of the devil in the lives of individuals”, including exorcism.
Clemishire told a writer for the Wartburg Watch blog that he met Morris at a youth revival in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1981, according to the post.
“He often stayed at her house and sometimes brought his wife, Debbie, and son, Josh,” the blog said. “Robert and Debbie Morris quickly became family friends and Cindy found them safe and friendly. Their families used to travel together.”
It was while Morris was staying at their home that he abused Celmishire, according to The Wartburg Watch.
Gateway Church’s statement said leaders knew of the alleged abuse and that Morris “has put accountability measures and people in her life” since then.
