‘Unacceptable’: Officials respond to reported child sex abuse by Gateway Church pastor
North Texas leaders including former Southlake mayor John Huffman urged Robert Morris to resign from his job as the leader of North Texas megachurch Gateway Church in response to allegations of child sexual abuse.
After the statements Tuesday from Huffman and other elected officials, the church’s board of elders confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that it has accepted Morris’ resignation.
Morris, the founder and senior pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake, admitted to sexual contact with a girl in the 1980s. The woman, now in her 50s, said the abuse began when she was 12 years old and continued until Morris was caught in 1987, when she was 16. Morris said in a statement the church shared with its leadership that the abuse including kissing and touching but not intercourse.
Huffman, who was the mayor of Southlake from 2021 until he launched an ultimately unsuccessful bid for a Republican nomination for Congress this year, said Morris needed to step down or be removed from his position of leadership.
“We are all sinners, saved by grace,” Huffman wrote in a post on X on Tuesday. “And some sins are so egregious and vile that they disqualify a person from holding an office of trust like a pastorship.”
Morris, a spiritual adviser to Donald Trump and the founder of one of the largest churches in the country, is accused of abusing the woman multiple 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 in his 20s.
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 wore when the abuse took place.
Morris said in the statement released by Gateway Church that he was removed from ministry by Shady Grove Church, where he worked at the time, and went to “freedom ministry.”
On its website, Gateway Church describes its own freedom ministry as religious counseling to “undo the works of the devil in the lives of individuals,” including exorcism.
Morris said he spoke with Shady Grove church elders and Clemishire’s father before he returned to the ministry, according to the statement.
“I submitted myself to the elders of Shady Grove Church and the young lady’s father,” Morris said, referring to the then-16-year-old girl’s father. “They asked me to step out of ministry and receive counseling and freedom ministry. Since that time, I have walked in purity and accountability in this area.”
Huffman apparently took issue with Morris’ characterization of Clemishire as a “young lady” at that time.
“Years ago, he ruined a 12 year old girl’s life. She was not a young lady, but a child,” Huffman wrote on Tuesday morning. “He should have spent time in jail, but he didn’t. And to date, despite the news breaking days ago, leadership at Gateway Church has made no public statements, and Pastor Morris remains employed. This is unacceptable.”
Huffman said it doesn’t matter how long it’s been since the abuse, there have to be consequences.
“I can’t imagine how painful the last 35 years have been for her. She deserves every measure of justice, delayed as it may be,” Huffman wrote.
Republican State Rep. Nate Schatzline, who is a pastor at Mercy Culture in Fort Worth, also issued a statement saying that Morris’ actions were “deeply disturbing and are unacceptable for anyone, especially a spiritual leader.”
He said Morris has shared in the past about a “moral failing” and went to restoration ministry. While he believes in that ministry, Schatzline said, the details about Morris’ actions changed his view of Morris’ ability to lead a church.
“I wholeheartedly condemn these actions and any attempt to cover them up,” Schatzline wrote in the statement. “We’re praying for the woman who has come forward and everyone affected, and I am grieved that a church leader committed this abuse.”
He said Morris’ actions should be made public, not tolerated and that anybody who harms a child should be held accountable.
Republican State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, who represents Southlake in the Texas House, wrote in a statement that Clemishire is owed justice and Morris needs to be held accountable.
“His confession of criminal activity and moral failure is shocking and unacceptable,” he wrote. “My heart goes out to the woman whose life was irrevocably altered by his actions when she was just a child.”
He wrote that he will stand with Clemishire and any other victims.
“The pain he has caused cannot be erased, and he should face the consequences of his crimes,” Capriglione said in the statement. “I stand with any victims and will continue to fight for their rights and safety.”
North Texas’ Gateway Church started with 180 members in a Grapevine hotel in 2000 and has grown to more than 39,000 active members at its home campus in Southlake and at satellite churches across Dallas-Fort Worth, from North Richland Hills to Grand Prairie to Frisco.
This story was originally published June 18, 2024 at 2:38 PM.