Large Church Minister and FormerTrump Adviser Admits Guilt to Child Sexual Abuse
The founder of among the biggest large congregations in the US, Robert Morris, has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a young girl in Oklahoma during the 1980s.
The pastor, 64, entered a guilty plea on Thursday in the local court on five criminal counts of inappropriate acts with a minor. He was given a sentence to a decade in custody, but as part of a plea deal will serve only six months in county jail.
He will register as a registered offender and pay $250,000 in restitution.
Context of the Case
The former minister established Gateway church in the city of Southlake, Texas. He expanded it into among the ten biggest large churches in the United States, with over twenty-five thousand attendees each week.
Cindy Clemishire, fifty-five, the individual who publicly identified herself as the survivor of the abuse, was present in the courtroom as he admitted his guilt. In a prepared statement she stated: “There is no such thing as agreement from a 12-year-old child. We were not involved in any improper relationship. I was not a young woman but a child. You performed a criminal act against me.”
Her sibling Karen Black also read a statement, stating: “You pretended to be holy, preaching from big pulpits. As you hid behind your facade, we’ve been aware you are simply 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 Abuse
The abuse began in 1982 when the pastor, at age twenty-one, was a travelling evangelist. He was a guest of the family in their home, where he invited the child into his room.
The abuse persisted for the following four years.
A leaked transcript of a conversation revealed that in 2005, Morris tried to bribe the victim into not speaking out, saying to her to “put a price on it”.
Fall from Grace and Associations
Morris’s conviction marks a remarkable fall for the minister. At his peak, he wrote multiple popular books and his teachings were broadcast globally.
He also served as a spiritual adviser to Donald Trump. He joined the White House spiritual advisory committee during the initial Trump administration and was involved in an effort to mobilize evangelical voters for him in last year’s presidential campaign.
The former president also visited the church in 2020 where he commended Morris and his senior team as “great people with a great reputation”.
