Megachurch Pastor and FormerTrump Adviser Admits Guilt to Child Sexual Abuse

The founder of among the biggest large congregations in the US, the pastor, has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a young girl in Oklahoma during the 1980s.

The pastor, sixty-four, entered a guilty plea on that day in Osage county district court on five criminal counts of inappropriate acts with a minor. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but under an agreement will only serve half a year in county jail.

He will register as a registered offender and be required to pay a quarter million dollars in compensation.

Context of the Case

The disgraced pastor founded Gateway church in Southlake, the state of Texas. He grew it into among the ten biggest large churches in the US, with more than 25,000 visitors weekly.

Cindy Clemishire, 55, the individual who publicly identified herself as the survivor of Morris’s sexual abuse, was there in court as he admitted his guilt. In a prepared statement she told him: “There is no such thing as agreement from a 12-year-old child. We were not involved in any improper relationship. I was not a young woman but a child. You committed a crime against me.”

Her sister a family member also read a statement, stating: “You acted as if you were righteous, preaching from large platforms. As you hid behind your facade, we’ve known you are nothing but a predator.”

Morris resigned from the church the previous year after the victim made her story known. She had spent years seeking justice for the abuse.

Specifics of the Abuse

The abuse started in 1982 when the pastor, at age twenty-one, was a travelling evangelist. He stayed with Clemishire’s family in their residence, where he invited the child into his room.

The molestation persisted for the following four years.

A revealed recording of a phone call showed that in 2005, Morris attempted to pay off Clemishire into silence, saying to her to “put a price on it”.

Fall from Grace and Connections

The guilty verdict marks a remarkable fall for the pastor. At his height, he wrote multiple popular books and his sermons were transmitted globally.

He also became a spiritual adviser to the former president. He joined the presidential advisory group during the first Trump presidency and was involved in an effort to mobilize religious voters for him in the recent election.

Trump also visited Gateway church in 2020 where he commended the pastor and his leadership as “wonderful individuals with a stellar reputation”.