Robert Morris, the senior pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake, one of the largest churches in the country, has been accused by a woman of sexually abusing her when she was ages 12 to 16.
The Oklahoma woman, now in her 50s, said Morris abused her on multiple occasions in the 1980s. The alleged abuse, first reported Friday on the religious watchdog blog Wartburg Watch, happened in Oklahoma and Texas between 1982 and 1987. The Christian Post published a story Saturday about the allegations.
Morris, 62, has not been criminally charged, and the statute of limitations for such crimes has passed in both states. Morris did not respond to email and phone messages seeking comment Saturday.
Gateway Church officials on Saturday said they were aware of the allegations but declined to comment when asked by The Dallas Morning News. Lawrence Swicegood, who is listed on the church website as executive director of Gateway Media, replied by email to The News late Saturday, saying, “At this time we are not granting interviews or providing additional statements.”
Morris did not preach at the Southlake Saturday afternoon service, and the allegations were not addressed during the service. Several attendees either declined to comment or said they were unaware of the allegations.
A statement reportedly sent to church staff by elders of Gateway and posted to X said Morris “has been open and forthright about a moral failure he had over 35 years ago.” According to the statement, Morris’ restoration process was closely administered by elders and included professional counseling.
“Since the resolution of this 35-year-old matter, there have been no other moral failures,” the statement read. “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.”
Morris is also quoted in the statement, and said he was involved in “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a “young lady.”
In a phone call with The News on Saturday, Cindy Clemishire, Morris’ accuser, said she met Morris in 1981, when he was a traveling preacher and began preaching at her family’s church. The News does not typically name victims of sexual abuse, but Clemishire has allowed her name to be published.
Clemishire said Morris and his wife and young son became very close with her family. By the time he flew to Tulsa on Christmas Day 1982, he “was like family.” She said Morris stayed at her family’s home, as he was preaching the next morning at their church.
That night, Clemishire said, Morris told her to come to his room because he wanted to talk to her. She said he told her to lay on the bed.
“I remember vividly everything I was wearing and how the pajamas felt. They were light pink, and it was a little top with bloomers, and I had on underwear and bloomers and the little top and a robe that snapped up over the top,” she said.
After they talked for a few minutes, she said Morris began touching her inappropriately. Clemishire said Morris told her not to tell anyone because it would “ruin everything.”
Clemishire said she was 12 when the abuse started.
“I just remember he just wanted to talk,” Clemishire said. “And then he started touching my stomach and proceeded to touch my breast and went under my pants, and then told me I could never tell anyone, because it would ruin everything.”
Clemishire said the abuse continued for roughly four-and-half years, with Morris finding ways to be alone with her, such as trips to the grocery store. She said she came forward about the abuse in March 1987, when she told a family friend, who urged her and went with her to tell her parents. At this time, Morris was a pastor at Shady Grove, a church in Grand Prairie that later became Gateway’s Grand Prairie campus.
Clemishire said her father called the lead pastor at Shady Grove and demanded Morris be removed from the ministry. According to Clemishire, Morris stepped away from the church for two years and entered a “restoration” before coming back in 1989.
Morris said in the statement that the behavior only included “kissing and petting and not intercourse” and said it was wrong.
Morris said he reentered the ministry with the “full blessing” of Clemishire’s father, and said he and his wife met with her and her family to ask for forgiveness, which Morris said happened.
Clemishire said this was only partially true.
“Of course we want to forgive, we’re called to forgive,” Clemishire said. “But he’s never had anyone’s blessing in my family to be back in the ministry. We don’t believe anyone that’s done anything like this should be an overseer to anyone in any industry, but especially in the church.”
Clemishire said she does not believe Morris was truly repentant due to how he described the alleged abuse.
“I don’t think that it’s repentant when someone calls a 12-year-old a ‘young lady’ and tries to just dismiss what happened as just some heavy petting,” Clemishire said. “I don’t believe that’s repentance. There’s no child on Earth that any person should ever do that to. It’s just unacceptable. There’s zero excuse.”
In 2005, Clemishire said she decided to pursue a lawsuit against Morris, as the statute of limitations on criminal charges had passed. Clemishire said she asked for $50,000 to cover the cost of her counseling, and in response, Morris’ attorney accused her of “seeking out” Morris’ sexual advances and offered her $25,000 to sign a nondisclosure agreement, which she declined.
In addition to his pastoral duties at Gateway, Morris is a prominent televangelist and has been politically active. During Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, Morris was named to his “evangelical advisory board.” Trump visited Gateway’s Dallas campus in June 2020 for a roundtable discussion on race relations and the economy.
Gateway was founded by Morris in 2000 in Southlake and has expanded to nine campuses across Dallas-Fort Worth as well as offering services online. According to Gateway’s website, the church has about 100,000 attendees ach weekend.
