The founder of one of the largest megachurches in the US, Robert Morris, has admitted guilt to sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl in Oklahoma during the 1980s.
Morris, 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 10 years in prison, but as part of a plea deal will serve only half a year in county jail.
He will register as a registered offender and be required to pay a quarter million dollars in restitution.
Context of the Case
The former minister established the church in the city of Southlake, the state of Texas. He grew it into among the ten biggest megachurches in the US, with more than 25,000 attendees each week.
Cindy Clemishire, 55, the individual who came forward as the victim of the abuse, was present in the courtroom as he pleaded guilty. In a prepared statement she stated: “There is no such thing as consent from a 12-year-old child. 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 sister a family member also read a statement, stating: “You pretended to be holy, speaking from big pulpits. As you hid behind your facade, we’ve been aware you are simply a predator.”
Morris stepped down from the church the previous year after the victim went public. She had spent years trying to hold her abuser accountable.
Specifics of the Incidents
The abuse began in 1982 when the pastor, at age twenty-one, was a itinerant preacher. He was a guest of the family in their residence, where he invited the child into his bedroom.
The abuse persisted for the following four years.
A revealed recording of a phone call showed that in 2005, the pastor tried to bribe the victim into not speaking out, telling her to “name your price”.
Downfall and Associations
Morris’s conviction signals a dramatic downfall for the minister. At his peak, he wrote multiple popular books and his sermons were transmitted around the world.
He also became a spiritual adviser to the former president. He joined 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 leadership as “great people with a great reputation”.
