Large Church Pastor and Ex-Trump Adviser Admits Guilt to Sexual Abuse of a Minor
The founder of one of the largest megachurches in the US, the pastor, has admitted guilt to sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl in Oklahoma during the 1980s.
The pastor, sixty-four, pleaded guilty on Thursday 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 custody, but under an agreement will only serve half a year in local jail.
He will be listed as a sex offender and pay $250,000 in compensation.
Background of the Legal Matter
The former minister founded the church in the city of Southlake, the state of Texas. He expanded it into one of the top 10 largest large churches in the United States, with over twenty-five thousand attendees weekly.
Cindy Clemishire, fifty-five, the woman who came forward as the survivor of Morris’s sexual abuse, was present in the courtroom as he pleaded guilty. In a prepared statement she told him: “There is no such thing as consent from a 12-year-old child. We were never in an ‘inappropriate relationship’. I was not a young woman but a minor. You committed a crime against me.”
Her sister a family member also read a statement, saying: “You acted as if you were righteous, speaking from large platforms. As you hid behind your facade, we’ve been aware you are nothing but a predator.”
Morris resigned from the church the previous year after Clemishire went public. She had spent years trying to hold her abuser accountable.
Specifics of the Abuse
The molestation started in 1982 when Morris, at age twenty-one, was a travelling evangelist. He stayed with Clemishire’s family in their residence, where he invited the girl into his bedroom.
The molestation persisted for the next four-year period.
A leaked transcript of a phone call revealed that in 2005, the pastor tried to bribe the victim into not speaking out, telling her to “name your price”.
Fall from Grace and Connections
The guilty verdict marks a remarkable fall for the pastor. At his peak, he wrote several bestselling books and his teachings were broadcast globally.
He also served as a religious counselor to the former president. He was part of the White House spiritual advisory committee during the initial Trump administration and was part of a campaign to organize evangelical voters for him in the recent election.
The former president also visited Gateway church in 2020 where he commended the pastor and his senior team as “great people with a stellar reputation”.
