The son of a disgraced Texas megachurch pastor who resigned amid allegations of sexually abusing young girls abruptly quit the church on Thursday.
James Morris resigned as associate senior pastor at Gateway Church after his father, Robert Morris, admitted last month to engaging in “inappropriate sexual conduct” with a family friend, beginning when he was just 12 years old.
The younger Morris and his wife, Bridget Morris, who is the church’s executive pastor, decided together to resign after meeting with Gateway Church elders, he said. WFAA.
The church said in a statement obtained by the media outlet that the couple had “jointly decided” to step down from their roles.
“We, the elders, affirm and believe that God has placed in the hearts of Pastor James and Bridget a desire to serve as senior pastors of the church in the future,” the elders said. “We love Pastor James and Bridget and their children, and we are so grateful that they care deeply for them and have dedicated their lives to Gateway Church.”
“They have served our congregation and this community faithfully and honorably for many years since they became part of Gateway Church.”
Robert Morris was scheduled to hand over leadership of the church to his son in 2025, before the allegations were made public.
Robert Morris, a one-time spiritual adviser to former President Donald Trump, founded Gateway Church in Southlake in 2000 and has grown it to become one of the largest in the country, with 100,000 members.
In June, Cindy Klemischer publicly accused Robert Morris of seducing her beginning in 1987, when she was 12 and he was 20.
The abuse allegedly continued for four years.
“I was 12 years old, a little girl, a very innocent girl, and he was brought into our home,” Klemischer told The Christian Post of the abuse that took her decades as an adult to understand.
Clemishire, now 54 and a grandmother, claims that Morris repeatedly abused her in Texas and Oklahoma and told his wife at the time that he was only “counseling” her during the abuse.
Cheshire eventually confided in a friend about the abuse, who encouraged her to tell her family.
When her father found out, he told the senior pastor that he would call the police if Morris “did not resign from his ministry,” which he did for two years.
In 2007, Clemishire threatened to sue Morris, but the pastor’s lawyers refuted the allegations, arguing that the 12-year-old Clemishire was responsible.
Attorney J. Shelby Sharp said Klemisher “was the one who initiated the inappropriate conduct by entering my client’s bedroom and getting into bed with her, and my client should never have allowed that to happen.”
The church said it would share more information with its congregations during services over the weekend.
At the first service after James Morris’ resignation, church elders apologized to Clemisher.
“Cindy, if you’re watching, we on behalf of the entire church want to apologize again for the years of pain you’ve endured,” Gateway elder Trey Wilbanks said. According to CBS Texas.
“To be clear, we believe this to be a case of child sexual abuse. Any description less than that does not reflect our position. We apologize for any miscommunication. We have no intention of covering up or minimizing this situation, and in fact we want to say to Cindy, ‘Thank you for coming forward.'”
Gateway Church elders supported Pastor Robert Morris when the allegations first emerged last month, saying he “spoke openly and frankly about the moral failings he made more than 35 years ago” and that he “had confessed and been restored to his pastoral ministry in accordance with the Bible.”
The church changed its stance after Pastor Morris’ resignation, claiming it did not know the “young woman” he referred to was only 12 years old.
Max Lucado was appointed interim pastor of Gateway Church on Friday and will serve in that role until the end of 2024, he said in a statement. Facebook post.
“The Bible says God is near to the broken people, and there are a lot of broken people in this story,” he said. “My desire is just this: to love God’s broken people, and I see this as an opportunity to do just that.”
