Large Church Pastor and Ex-Trump Adviser Admits Guilt to Child Sexual Abuse

The founder of among the biggest megachurches in the US, Robert Morris, has admitted guilt to molesting a 12-year-old girl in the state of 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 lewd or indecent acts with a child. He was given a sentence to a decade in prison, but under an agreement will serve only six months in county jail.

He will be listed as a sex offender and pay a quarter million dollars in restitution.

Background of the Case

The former minister established Gateway church in Southlake, Texas. He expanded it into one of the top 10 largest megachurches in the US, with over twenty-five thousand attendees weekly.

The victim, fifty-five, the woman who came forward as the survivor of Morris’s sexual abuse, was there in court as he pleaded guilty. In a prepared statement she told him: “It is impossible to have agreement from a child of twelve. We were not involved in any improper relationship. I was not a young woman but a child. You performed a criminal act against me.”

Her sibling a family member also made a declaration, saying: “You acted as if you were righteous, preaching from large platforms. As you hid behind your facade, we’ve known you are simply a predator.”

The pastor stepped down from the church the previous year after Clemishire made her story known. She had devoted many years trying to hold her abuser accountable.

Details of the Abuse

The molestation began in the year 1982 when the pastor, then 21, was a itinerant preacher. He was a guest of Clemishire’s family in their home, where he asked the child into his bedroom.

The abuse continued for the next four-year period.

A revealed recording of a phone call showed that in 2005, the pastor tried to bribe Clemishire into silence, telling her to “name your price”.

Fall from Grace and Connections

The guilty verdict signals a dramatic downfall for the pastor. At his peak, he authored several bestselling books and his sermons were broadcast around the world.

He also served as a religious counselor to Donald Trump. 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.

Trump also attended Gateway church in 2020 where he commended Morris and his senior team as “great people with a stellar reputation”.