A Texas megachurch pastor is out of a job, and his own board reversed course on defending him after allegations emerged that he sexually abused a preteen girl for years, beginning when she was 12.
Robert Morris, the founder of the Gateway Church in Southlake and a one-time spiritual adviser to former President Donald Trump, resigned and was slammed by the church’s Board of Elders on Tuesday — just days after the group vehemently defended him as a reformed man.
The elders claimed the sudden U-turn came after learning the full allegations from 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 Gateway Church 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 abuse of a 12-year-old child.
“Even though it occurred many years before Gateway was established, as leaders of the church, we regret we did not have the information that we now have.”
The board members — who oversee one of the biggest megachurches in the US, with 100,000 members — said they were left “heartbroken and appalled” by the allegation, offering an apology and expressing their sympathies to Clemishire and her family.
Clemishire says she was groomed for abused by the pastor beginning at age 12 and lasting until she was 16 in the 1980s.
She also blasted Morris’ dismissive description of what happened when he said he had a brief affair with a “young lady”
“It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong,” Morris told the Christian Post.
The resignation comes after Clemishire called on Morris to step down for proving he has yet to truly repent over 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 on Monday.
“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.”
Clemishire, now a 54-year-old grandmother, added: “I was an innocent 12-year-old little girl who knew nothing about sexual behavior.”
Clemishire was also outraged at Morris’ suggestion her dad 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 the pastor initially stepping down from the church for two years during the aftermath before returning.
She tried to file a lawsuit against Morris in 2005, but Morris’ attorney suggested she caused the abuse because she was “flirtatious.”
They eventually offered her $25,000 if she signed a non-disclosure agreement, but she declined.
