Megachurch founder and Trump ally Robert Morris pleads guilty to child sex abuse
After a plea deal, the evangelical preacher will spend six months in jail and register as a sex offender
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Today in #NotADragQueen, Robert Morris, a megachurch pastor who used his reputation to help Donald Trump get elected, has just pleaded guilty to five counts of “lewd or indecent acts to a child.” As part of a plea deal, he’ll serve a relatively short prison sentence, have to register as a sex offender, and pay his victim $270,000 in damages.
It’s the culmination of a saga that began after Morris admitted that he sexually abused a child for a “few years” beginning when she was only 12. He was in his twenties at the time of the attacks. Morris later downplayed the severity of what he did by referring to it merely as “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady.”
Before going into the details of the plea deal, it’s important to understand Morris’ standing in the evangelical world.
When Trump was trying to convince conservative Christians to support his presidential campaign in the summer of 2016, he released a list of his “evangelical executive advisory board,” a collection of mostly white, mostly male Christians who would be guiding him in the months ahead. That list included the likes of James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Jr., and Ralph Reed.
It also included Robert Morris, the senior pastor of Gateway Church in Dallas, Texas.
Morris is the sort of person who claims his prayers can cure women’s infertility and that it’s “scientifically impossible to be an atheist.” He also claims transgender people are a threat to children:
In 2017, Morris was tapped by Gov. Greg Abbott to help support the so-called “Bathroom Bill” that sought to ban transgender people from using their preferred bathroom — in part by arguing that it would allow children to be sexually abused.
By 2019, Morris had hitched himself to the MAGA-wagon and prayed over Trump in the White House.
In 2020, Trump visited Gateway Church for an event on race relations and the economy (ha). During the event, he thanked Morris and other church leaders by saying they were “Great people with a great reputation.”
The reason Morris amassed the sort of power that allowed him to be that close to the president is because he was able to hide his own actions for decades.
According to the Wartburg Watch, which first broke this story, Morris was a traveling evangelist in 1981 when he visited Tulsa, Oklahoma and met a family with an 11-year-old daughter named Cindy Clemishire. (Because she’s gone public with her story, I’m naming her here.)
Morris, along with his wife and son, stayed with Cindy’s family frequently. They all became very close.
On Christmas Day in 1982, he allegedly invited Cindy to come to his bedroom where he proceeded to touch her beneath her clothing. He then told her, “Never tell anyone about this because it will ruin everything.”
As a little girl, she didn’t know any better.
Part of the reason Morris was able to get away with it, and the way he was able to get so much alone time with the child, was by telling his wife he was “counseling” the little girl.
This sort of behavior continued for years, through 1987.
At one point, Cindy told a friend what had happened and the news came back to her own father, who “demanded that Morris get out of ministry.” Morris stepped down for two years. When he finally returned to preaching, he began the church that would later become Gateway Church.
It wasn’t until Cindy was much older that she realized the extent to which she had been abused and just how inappropriate (and criminal) it was.
In 2005, she obtained an attorney to file a civil lawsuit. Robert Morris’s attorney responded by implying that they believed it was her fault because she was “flirtatious.” She asked for $50,000 (which was not much in my estimation.) They responded that they would give her $25,000 if she signed an NDA. She refused, so she can now tell her side of the story.
If that story was true, it was appalling (but not surprising) that the attorney blamed the child for what Morris did to her. No 12-year-old girl can legally consent to sex with an adult. She was not flirting with him.
(Interestingly enough, in one of Morris’ books, he wrote about how he stepped down from ministry in his mid-20s—a time period that coincided with when Cindy’s father demanded he get out. The book, however, said God told Morris to take time away from the pulpit to deal with his “pride.”)
When reporter Leonardo Blair of the Christian Post asked Morris for comment about the allegations at the time, the church responded with a confession of sorts. But they also acted like it was no big deal.
“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. It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong. This behavior happened on several occasions over the next few years,” Morris said in a statement to The Christian Post after Gateway Church was asked about the allegations.
“In March of 1987, this situation was brought to light, and it was confessed and repented of. I submitted myself to the Elders of Shady Grove Church and the young lady’s father. They asked me to step out of ministry and receive counseling and freedom ministry, which I did. Since that time, I have walked in purity and accountability in this area,” Morris added.
He explained that he returned to ministry in March of 1989, two years after his abuse was exposed with the blessing of the survivor’s father and the elders of his church. He further noted that he and his wife met with the survivor and her family in October 1989.
“I asked their forgiveness, and they graciously forgave me,” Morris said.
She was not a “young lady.” She was a 12-year-old girl.
It wasn’t merely “inappropriate.” It was criminal.
It wasn’t just “kissing and petting.” According to Cindy, Morris “touch[ed] every part of my body and inserted his fingers into me.”
And Cindy’s father did not give Morris his blessings.
“My father never ever gave his blessing on Robert returning to ministry! 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! Of course, we forgive because we are called to biblically forgive those who sin against us. But that does not mean he is supposed to go on without repercussions,” she said.
The statement from Gateway Church also included comment from the church’s elders, but it was no better than anything Morris said.
“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.
“The two-year restoration process was closely administered by the Elders at Shady Grove Church and included him stepping out of the ministry during that period while receiving professional counseling and freedom ministry counseling,” they said. “Since the resolution of this 35-year-old matter, there have been no other moral failures. Pastor Robert has walked in purity, and he has placed accountability measures and people in his life. The matter has been properly disclosed to church leadership.”
It wasn’t a “moral failure.” It was criminal sexual assault.
He didn’t share publicly from the pulpit why he needed any kind of “restoration.”
The fact that it happened 35 years ago was irrelevant largely because this was never made public until the survivor told her side of the story. (The Catholic Church learned the hard way that people won’t forgive them for clergy abuse that occurred decades ago.)
And no one should simply accept that Morris has had “no other moral failures” since that time because we already have evidence of this particular crime being covered up.
If “church leadership” knew all about what he did, what did it say about them that the congregation was never told Morris was a child sex predator? (In an internal Slack channel for Gateway, church staffers were given the same statement with no further details about how Morris sexually assaulted a child for many years.)
There was simply no accountability of any kind happening here.
When the story first broke, Morris was still the senior pastor of Gateway. He wasn’t facing any punishments from his church, much less criminal charges. But after the story began spreading, he resigned and the church elders promised to conduct a “review of past abuse” (and hired a law firm to do it). They claimed they had no idea about the victim’s age or length of time the abuse occurred.
When that investigation was finally completed in November, it led to the removal of multiple elders who ignored the seriousness of the crimes:
According to [Gateway Elder Tra] Willbanks, all but three of the Gateway elders had some knowledge about Morris’ encounter with Clemishire and “failed to inquire further,” and some allegedly knew before allegations became public that Clemishire was a child when the abuse occurred.
Those three elders were spared because they knew nothing about the incidents until they became public. But even that investigation was limited because a lot of former church leaders were no longer around and Morris chose not to cooperate.
Despite the removal of those other elders, the fear was that all of this would eventually blow over and Morris would just downplay it whenever he inevitably returned to the pulpit.
After all, that’s what conservative Christians have a habit of doing whenever their pastors are forced to admit an incident of sexual assault that they thought they had swept under the rug. They do it so often that pastors have developed a playbook for these things. All they have to do is say they did something immoral, but it happened in the past, and they prayed on it, and God forgave them, and they’ve been doing great ever since. Rinse, lather, repeat.
There’s never any mention of all the people they hurt. There are never any details offered about the exact nature of their “immorality.” There are never any serious consequences for their actions.
The irony was that Morris spent years preaching about sexual ethics and sin and consequences for one’s actions. During that time, he promoted a presidential candidate (and later president) who did all the things Morris urged people not to do because Christians like him love hypocrisy.
And in all that time, he was hiding his own troubling secret.
While Morris built his empire in Texas, the abuse occurred in Oklahoma, and earlier this year, a multi-county grand jury in that state indicted Morris on five counts. The jury heard two days of testimony in secret before announcing their decision.
The attorney general of Oklahoma issued this statement after the verdict:
“There can be no tolerance for those who sexually prey on children,” said Attorney General Gentner Drummond. “This case is all the more despicable because the alleged perpetrator was a pastor who exploited his position. The victim in this case has waited far too many years for justice to be done.”
The statute of limitations is not applicable in this case because Morris was not a resident or inhabitant of Oklahoma at any time.
Drummond made that last point in response to some legal experts who argued that the statute of limitations may have expired on this case.
The indictment laid out each of the counts against Morris:
December 25, 1982: Morris touched the “breasts and vaginal area” of the 12-year-old victim.
December 27, 1982: Morris removed the girl’s clothes and looked at her “breasts and vaginal area… in a lewd or lascivious manner.”
Sometime between January 15, 1983 and January 24, 1983: Morris touched the girls “breasts and vaginal area… in a lewd or lascivious manner.”
Sometime between January 25, 1983 and January 24, 1985: Morris touched the girls “breasts and vaginal area… in a lewd or lascivious manner” while parked in a car.
Sometime between January 25, 1983 and January 24, 1985: Morris touched the girl’s “body and private parts… in a lewd or lascivious manner” by “removing her clothing and rubbing his body, including his penis, covered by his clothing against her body, including her leg, while parked” in a car.
It was all horrific. Clemishire is now a 55-year-old grandmother, but she told the Christian Post she was glad to see justice finally get served despite the decades it took to happen:
“After almost 43 years, the law has finally caught up with Robert Morris for the horrific crimes he committed against me as a child. Now, it is time for the legal system to hold him accountable,” she said in a statement to CP. “My family and I are deeply grateful to the authorities who have worked tirelessly to make this day possible and remain hopeful that justice will ultimately prevail.”
After that indictment, charges were officially filed and Morris had to go in front of a judge. Each of the five felonies were punishable by up to 20 years in prison, so Morris could have faced 100 years behind bars.
It was also possible, however, that he received a slap on the wrist. Plenty of white evangelical leaders have escaped serious consequences for their crimes, and Morris had the kind of lawyers who would argue that his devout faith should spare him from the worst punishment.
Instead of letting the judge seal his fate, though, Morris decided to just enter a guilty plea. He received a 10-year sentence but it’ll only result in him spending six months in a county jail followed by a lengthy probationary period. (As I mentioned earlier, he’ll also have to register as a sex offender and pay Clemishire a $270,000 in restitution.)
Six months feels like nothing given the seriousness of his crime, but instead of comparing it to the 100 years he could have faced or the 10 years he was technically sentenced to, I was more worried about the other alternative: No time in prison. Guys like Morris tend to avoid jail time entirely. That he’ll spend any time behind bars feels significant.
And while the attention here will be on Morris, I hope that people pay attention to Clemishire’s statement in court. She’s already shown incredible courage but just look at what she said to Morris before he was taken into custody:
In a prepared statement, Clemishire told Morris in court his abuse “rippled into every part” of her life, straining relationships, damaging her marriages and affecting the way she raised her children. She said she prayed that God helped him to understand the depth of the pain he inflicted.
Morris eyes were fixed on the table in front of him as Clemishire, speaking through tears, faced him during her remarks.
“Let me be clear,” she said. “There is no such thing as consent from a 12-year-old child. We were never in an ‘inappropriate relationship.’ I was not a ‘young lady’ but a child. You committed a crime against me.”
…
“Today marks a new beginning for me, my family and my friends who have been by my side throughout this horrendous journey,” Clemishire told Morris in court, a defiant tremor in her voice.
“Robert, I want you to see me clearly: I am no longer the silenced little girl you abused.”
The full victim impact statement can be read here.
Incidentally, Morris is currently pursuing a lawsuit against Gateway Church, the church that pushed him out because of all the molesting, demanding that they pay him retirement benefits worth millions of dollars. It’s unclear what will become of that lawsuit now that he’s pleaded guilty.
Robert Morris’ downfall isn’t just a story of a predator finally facing the consequences of his crimes; it’s an indictment of the entire white evangelical machine that enabled him, protected him, and elevated him to the heights of political and religious power. Remember: Some of his own colleagues knew what he had done yet supported him regardless. That allowed him to build a platform large enough to advise presidents and shape public policy, all while smearing LGBTQ people as threats to children, even as he himself preyed on one. His guilty plea rips away the lie that he was engaged in “sin” or had a brief “moral failing.” This was the calculated exploitation of a child by a man who saw himself as a religious leader.
That Morris will finally sit behind bars, even if briefly, signals something rare in the world of white evangelical celebrity: real-world justice. It took the secular world to make him pay because the religious world was looking the other way. Churches like his demand “purity” from everyone else while covering up for abusers. Finally, because of the courage of Cindy Clemishire, that silence has been broken.
Morris will now be known not as a pastor but by a more accurate label: sex offender. Let’s hope his downfall serves as a warning to every other wolf in the pulpit: Your victims are finding their voices. Your time is coming.
(Portions of this article were published earlier)
What is it about Christianity that keeps churning out child molesters almost like clockwork?
They seem to rival Toyota in mass production.
Obligatory: Not. A. Drag. Queen.