Large Church Pastor and FormerTrump Adviser Admits Guilt to Sexual Abuse of a Minor
The founder of one of the largest megachurches in the United States, Robert Morris, has admitted guilt to sexually abusing a young girl in Oklahoma during the 1980s.
Morris, sixty-four, entered a guilty plea on Thursday in Osage county district court on multiple charges of inappropriate acts with a child. He was sentenced to a decade in prison, but under an agreement will only serve half a year in county jail.
He will register as a registered offender and be required to pay $250,000 in compensation.
Background of the Case
The disgraced pastor founded Gateway church in Southlake, Texas. He expanded it into one of the top 10 largest megachurches in the United States, with more than 25,000 attendees weekly.
Cindy Clemishire, fifty-five, the woman who came forward as the victim of Morris’s sexual abuse, was present in the courtroom as he pleaded guilty. In a written declaration she told him: “It is impossible to have consent from a 12-year-old child. We were not involved in any improper relationship. I was not a ‘young lady’ but a minor. You performed a criminal act against me.”
Her sibling Karen Black also read a statement, stating: “You pretended to be holy, preaching from large platforms. As you hid behind your facade, we’ve known you are nothing but a predator.”
The pastor resigned from the congregation last year after Clemishire went public. She had spent years trying to hold her abuser accountable.
Specifics of the Incidents
The molestation started in the year 1982 when Morris, then 21, was a travelling evangelist. He was a guest of Clemishire’s family in their residence, where he asked the child into his room.
The abuse continued for the next four-year period.
A revealed recording of a phone call showed that in 2005, the pastor tried to bribe the victim into not speaking out, saying to her to “put a price on it”.
Fall from Grace and Connections
Morris’s conviction signals a dramatic downfall for the minister. At his peak, he authored multiple popular books and his sermons were transmitted around the world.
He also became a religious counselor to Donald Trump. He was part of the White House spiritual advisory committee during the initial Trump administration and was part of a campaign to mobilize evangelical voters for him in last year’s presidential campaign.
Trump also visited the church in 2020 where he commended the pastor and his senior team as “wonderful individuals with a stellar reputation”.
