The head of among the biggest large congregations in the United States, Robert Morris, has pleaded guilty to molesting a young girl in the state of Oklahoma during the 1980s period.
The pastor, sixty-four, pleaded guilty on Thursday in Osage county district court on five criminal counts of lewd or indecent acts with a minor. He was sentenced to a decade in prison, but as part of a plea deal will serve only half a year in county jail.
He will register as a registered offender and pay $250,000 in compensation.
Context of the Legal Matter
The disgraced pastor founded the church in Southlake, Texas. He grew it into among the ten biggest megachurches in the US, with more than 25,000 attendees weekly.
Cindy Clemishire, fifty-five, the individual who came forward as the victim of the abuse, was there in court as he admitted his guilt. In a written declaration she told him: “There is no such thing as consent from a 12-year-old child. We were not involved in any improper relationship. I was not a ‘young lady’ but a child. You performed a criminal act against me.”
Her sister Karen Black also made a declaration, stating: “You pretended to be holy, speaking from large platforms. As you concealed your true self, we’ve been aware you are simply a predator.”
Morris resigned from the church last year after the victim went public. She had spent years trying to hold her abuser accountable.
Specifics of the Abuse
The abuse started in the year 1982 when the pastor, at age twenty-one, was a travelling evangelist. He was a guest of the family in their residence, where he invited the child into his bedroom.
The molestation persisted for the following four years.
A leaked transcript of a conversation revealed that in 2005, Morris tried to bribe Clemishire into not speaking out, telling her to “put a price on it”.
Fall from Grace and Connections
The guilty verdict signals a dramatic downfall for the pastor. At his height, he authored multiple popular books and his sermons were transmitted around the world.
He also served as a spiritual adviser to the former president. He joined the presidential advisory group during the initial Trump administration and was involved in an effort to mobilize evangelical voters for him in the recent election.
Trump also visited Gateway church in 2020 where he praised the pastor and his senior team as “wonderful individuals with a stellar reputation”.
