Pastor Robert Morris Steps Down After Accusation of Child Molestation Goes Public

Cindy Clemishire accuses Pastor Robert Morris of molesting her at age 12, questioning his position as a church leader.

Written By Brianne Washington // EEW Magazine Online

Pastor Robert Morris, leader of Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, has resigned from his ministry role after admitting to "inappropriate sexual behavior" following allegations of molestation by Cindy Clemishire.

Clemishire, now 54, alleges that Morris, who was then 21 and married, began abusing her in 1982 when she was 12. She recounted the first incident occurred on Christmas night, with Morris, who was staying with her family, inviting her to his room, instructing her to lie on her back, and then touching her breasts and under her panties. Clemishire described this as the beginning of several encounters over 4½ years.

“Never tell anyone about this,” Clemishire remembered Morris saying. “It will ruin everything.”

These accusations were first revealed Friday on The Wartburg Watch, a website dedicated to exposing church abuse. Following the shocking report, Morris admitted to “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady” in a statement to The Christian Post. He clarified, "It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong."

This statement was also sent to Gateway Church staff shortly after Clemishire’s story was published.

Without naming Clemishire, Morris confirmed that the sexual encounters happened "on several occasions" over a few years until the situation was exposed in March 1987. Morris stated he confessed to church elders at that time and sought forgiveness.

“Since that time, I have walked in purity and accountability in this area,” Morris stated. “The sin was dealt with correctly by confession and repentance.”

Morris has not faced criminal charges. He and Gateway Church officials did not respond to requests for comments. In a message to staff, before Morris resigned, church officials noted that Morris had “properly disclosed” the matter to church elders.

“Since the resolution of this 35-year-old matter, there have been no other moral failures,” the message read.

However, in a new statement released to media today, after initially defending Morris, Gateway claimed it did not know the age of Morris’ victim and the length of her abuse.

But in a statement released to The Roys Report, the victim, Clemishire, said she confronted Morris about the abuse in an email sent in 2005. Clemishire added that former Gateway Elder Tom Lane responded to Clemishire’s email, “acknowledging that the sexual abuse began on December 25, 1982, when I was 12 years old.”

Morris had previously resigned from his role as an overseer of the Church of the Highlands. He had been serving as an overseer for the multi-campus Church of the Highlands in Alabama and stepped down after his decades-old misconduct came to light.

After the initial resignation, many questioned whether he should also step down from Gateway Church.

"Upon learning of the disturbing media reports, Highlands trustees and overseers promptly initiated a due diligence process, which included contacting Gateway's elders," the Church of the Highlands trustees stated in a message to The Roys Report.

Clemishire expressed disgust at Morris' description of her as a "young lady" in his initial statement. She also criticized his 2011 book, From Dream to Destiny, which attributed his two-year ministry hiatus in the late 1980s to pride, omitting any mention of the sexual misconduct.

“I don’t know if anybody deserves restoration to a position when they were doing criminal acts to a child,” Clemishire said. “I believe people can be restored with true repentance, but when you lie about it, I don’t believe that’s true repentance.”

Boz Tchividjian, Clemishire’s attorney and a former prosecutor, criticized Morris' language, stating it aimed "to sanitize something that is criminal." Tchividjian, also grandson of late Christian evangelist Billy Graham noted, “I was responsible for putting people in prison who are still there to this day for doing the same things that Robert Morris did to my client.”

When Clemishire’s family met Morris, he was a traveling evangelist under James Robison, a televangelist. By 1987, Morris was a pastor at Shady Grove Church. Clemishire said she disclosed the abuse to her father at 17, who then demanded Morris step down from ministry.

According to Gateway elders, Morris underwent a “two-year restoration process,” including counseling. Morris claimed the girl's father blessed his return to ministry, a claim Clemishire denies.

“My dad said, ‘I’ve turned you over to God; you’re just lucky I didn’t kill you,’” Clemishire said.

In 2000, Morris founded Gateway Church, which grew significantly under his leadership, now boasting an estimated weekly attendance of 100,000 people across multiple campuses.

Clemishire, a real estate agent in Oklahoma, has tried to inform church leaders about Morris' past, succeeding only after a retired pastor directed her to The Wartburg Watch. Witnessing Morris' rise in prominence has been painful for her.

“He wouldn’t be allowed to work in the nursery at his church if he had disclosed the truth,” Clemishire said. “Why should he be standing in the pulpit?”

Morris is known for promoting conservative Christian values. In 2017, he supported a bill by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to ban transgender individuals from using public bathrooms corresponding with their perceived sex. He has also warned about dangers in public schools, advocating for conservative school board candidates to oppose critical race theory and LGBTQ inclusion.

“If you haven’t looked at the material in schoolbooks in our libraries, I want you to look,” Morris said in May 2022. “It is as pornographic as anything you’ve ever read.”

Morris preaches strict sexual purity, sharing his struggles with sexual immorality in a 2014 sermon, where he spoke of lying and manipulating to target insecure girls.

“When he presented himself as vulnerable onstage, of course, people are going to be drawn to that,” Clemishire said. “I don’t think they would have been drawn to the fact that he molested a 12-year-old child.”

Morris’ influence extends beyond his church leadership roles. He served on former President Donald Trump’s spiritual advisory board during Trump's first presidential campaign and his presidency. Campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told NBC News that Trump was unaware of the allegations and that Morris has no role in the 2024 campaign.