Robert Morris, the leader of a huge church in Dallas, has quit after admitting to having “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady” in the 1980s. This happened after a woman said he abused her when she was 12 years old.
In a statement made on Tuesday, Gateway Church’s board of elders said they accepted Morris’s resignation. Morris is a senior pastor and used to be on Donald Trump’s faith advisory board.
The board said that it had hired a law company to do an outside review to make sure that they “fully understand what happened” from 1982 to 1987.
Cindy Cemishire, who is accusing the minister, told WFAA that Morris started abusing her on Christmas Day 1982, when she was 12 years old. They met when he was a traveling preacher and would speak at the church in Oklahoma where her family lived.
She said that Morris, his wife, and their young son became friendly with her family. In 1982, Morris asked her to come to his room while he was staying at her house. Clemishire, who is now 52 years old, said that he told her to lie down on his bed and then touched her improperly.
The abuse went on until 1987, when Clemishire told her parents about it.
“When I was in my early twenties, I was involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying. It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong,” he said.
Morris had previously said that he had engaged in “inappropriate sexual behavior,” but he claimed that he had not slept with the girl as reported in The Independent.
Morris, who started the church, has been politically involved. In the past, he was on the evangelical advice board for President Donald Trump. Trump met with leaders from the Gateway Church in Dallas in 2020 to talk about race relations and the business.
Infant Died from Meth Exposure and Malnutrition; Idaho Mum Sentenced after Heartbreaking Incident