Large Church Pastor and Ex-Trump Counselor Pleads Guilty to Child Sexual Abuse
The head of among the biggest megachurches in the United States, Robert Morris, has pleaded guilty to molesting a young girl in the state of Oklahoma during the 1980s.
The pastor, sixty-four, pleaded guilty on that day in the local court on multiple charges of inappropriate acts with a child. He was sentenced to a decade in prison, but as part of a plea deal will only serve six months in local jail.
He will register as a registered offender and pay a quarter million dollars in compensation.
Background of the Case
The disgraced pastor founded the church in Southlake, the state of Texas. He grew it into one of the top 10 largest large churches in the United States, with over twenty-five thousand visitors weekly.
Cindy Clemishire, 55, the woman who publicly identified herself as the survivor of the abuse, was there in court as he pleaded guilty. In a prepared statement she told him: “There is no such thing as consent from a child of twelve. We were never in an ‘inappropriate relationship’. I was not a young woman but a child. You committed a crime against me.”
Her sibling Karen Black also read a statement, saying: “You pretended to be holy, speaking from large platforms. As you concealed your true self, we’ve been aware you are nothing but a predator.”
Morris stepped down from the congregation last year after Clemishire went public. She had spent years trying to hold her abuser accountable.
Details of the Abuse
The abuse began in the year 1982 when Morris, then 21, was a itinerant preacher. He was a guest of the family in their home, where he asked the girl into his room.
The abuse continued for the following four years.
A revealed recording of a phone call showed that in 2005, the pastor tried to bribe Clemishire into not speaking out, saying to her to “name your price”.
Fall from Grace and Connections
The guilty verdict marks a remarkable fall for the pastor. At his peak, he authored several bestselling books and his sermons were transmitted globally.
He also became a religious counselor to the former president. He was part of the White House spiritual advisory committee during the initial Trump administration and was involved in an effort to mobilize evangelical voters for him in last year’s presidential campaign.
The former president also attended Gateway church in 2020 where he praised the pastor and his senior team as “great people with a stellar reputation”.
