The pastor of a megachurch in Texas has resigned after a woman alleged that he sexually abused her multiple times in the 1980s, beginning when she was 12 years old.
The Gateway Church’s presbytery announced in a statement Tuesday that it had accepted the resignation of the church’s senior pastor and founder, Robert Morris. The church said it had retained a law firm to conduct an independent investigation to “fully understand the events” from 1982 to 1987.
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The allegations were revealed Friday by The Wartburg Watch, a blog run by a religion watchdog group. Morris’ accuser, Cindy Klemisher, said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News on Saturday that she met Morris in 1981 when he was a traveling preacher and began preaching at her family’s church in Oklahoma. She said Morris, his wife and young son became close with her family. She said that in 1982, when he was staying over at her house, he asked her to come into his room. He told her to lie down on the bed and then began touching her inappropriately, said Klemisher, now 52.
Klemischer said the abuse continued for about four and a half years. The Associated Press does not typically name people who allege they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Klemischer did.
Pastor Robert Morris applauds during a roundtable discussion at Gateway Church Dallas Campus in Dallas, Thursday, June 11, 2020. Pastor Morris resigned after a woman came forward to say she was abused by Pastor Morris multiple times beginning at the age of 12 in the 1980s, according to a statement released Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Asked about the allegations made by The Christian Post, Morris, 62, said in a statement to the paper that when he was in his early 20s, he “engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with a young woman in a home where he was staying.”
“It was kissing and petting, not sexual intercourse, but it was wrong,” he said in a statement. “This behavior occurred several times over the next few years.”
The committee said that before Friday it “did not know all the facts about the inappropriate relationship between Morris and the victim, including the victim’s age at the time or the duration of the abuse.” It said the “extramarital relationship” that Morris had spoken about many times through his ministry was not understood by the committee to be “abusive of a 12-year-old child.”
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Based in Southlake, a suburb of Dallas, the church was founded by Pastor Morris in 2000 and has multiple churches in the area, with more than 100,000 people attending every weekend. The church’s first pastor, Pastor Morris, was active in politics and was a member of former President Donald Trump’s evangelical advisory council. The church welcomed Trump to its Dallas campus in 2020 to discuss race relations and the economy.
Morris did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent to the church’s email on Tuesday.
