Robert Morris, the pastor of a Texas megachurch and former spiritual adviser to Donald Trump, resigned Tuesday after admitting to sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl decades ago.
Morris, a founding pastor of the Gateway church admitted to The Christian Post on Saturday that he had been involved in “inappropriate sexual behavior” with “a young lady” for several years, between 1982 and 1987, failing to mention that the ‘young lady’ in question was 12-years-old.
The board of elders at Gateway announced Morris’ resignation in a statement on Tuesday.
The elders said they did not have all the facts about the case including the age of the victim at the time and the length of the abuse.
“The elders’ prior understanding was that Morris’s 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,” they said in a statement to NBC News.
“We are heartbroken and appalled by what has come to light over the past few days, and we express our deep sympathy to the victim and her family,”the elders added. “For the sake of the victim, we are thankful this situation has been exposed. We know many have been affected by this, we understand that you are hurting, and we are very sorry. It is our prayer that, in time, healing for all those affected can occur.”
The church board also announced that they retained the law firm Haynes & Boone LLP to conduct an independent review of past abuse reports in order to better understand events.
The allegations were made public on Friday after a woman name Cindy Clemishire, told The Wartburg Watch, a religious watchdog blog, that Morris molested her in 1982 when she was 12-years-old and he was 20. The alleged abuse continued for four-and-a-half years.
Morris dismissed abusing Clemishire in a statement to The Christian Post on Friday.
“When I was in my early twenties, I was involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying,” he said, failing to mention that this ‘young lady’ was 12. “It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong. This behavior happened on several occasions over the next few years.”
Elders at Gateway Church also told The Christian Post at the time that Morris had disclosed a “moral failure” and has since been absolved.
“Pastor Robert has been open and forthright about a moral failure he had over 35 years ago when he was in his twenties and prior to him starting Gateway Church. He has shared publicly from the pulpit the proper biblical steps he took in his lengthy restoration process,” they said.
Clemishire, now 54, said in a statement on Tuesday that she has “mixed feelings” about Morris’ resignation, according to NBC News.
“Though I am grateful that he is no longer a pastor at Gateway, I am disappointed that the Board of Elders allowed him to resign,” she said. “He should have been terminated.”
Morris founded the Gateway Church in Dallas in 2000. Its membership has grown to over 100,000 since then, making it one of the largest megachurches in the country. In 2016, Trump appointed him to his spiritual advisory board. Morris also hosted and participated in a roundtable discussion with Trump and other religious leaders at his church in 2020.
