Large Church Minister and FormerTrump Adviser Pleads Guilty to Sexual Abuse of a Minor
The founder of among the biggest large congregations in the US, the pastor, has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl in the state of Oklahoma during the 1980s.
Morris, sixty-four, entered a guilty plea on that day in the local court on multiple charges of inappropriate acts with a child. He was given a sentence to a decade in custody, but as part of a plea deal will serve only six months in local jail.
He will be listed as a registered offender and pay $250,000 in compensation.
Background of the Case
The former minister founded Gateway church in Southlake, Texas. He expanded it into among the ten biggest large churches in the US, with over twenty-five thousand attendees each week.
The victim, 55, the woman who publicly identified herself as the victim 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 made a declaration, saying: “You pretended to be holy, preaching from big pulpits. As you concealed your true self, we’ve been aware you are simply a predator.”
Morris resigned from the church the previous year after Clemishire went public. She had devoted many years seeking justice for the abuse.
Specifics of the Abuse
The abuse started in the year 1982 when Morris, then 21, was a travelling evangelist. He was a guest of Clemishire’s family in their residence, where he invited the girl into his bedroom.
The molestation persisted for the following four years.
A revealed recording of a conversation showed that in 2005, the pastor tried to bribe Clemishire into not speaking out, telling her to “name your price”.
Downfall and Connections
The guilty verdict signals a dramatic downfall for the pastor. At his peak, he wrote multiple popular books and his teachings were broadcast around the world.
He also served as a spiritual adviser to the former president. He joined the White House spiritual advisory committee during the first Trump presidency and was part of a campaign to mobilize religious voters for him in last year’s presidential campaign.
Trump also visited Gateway church in 2020 where he commended the pastor and his leadership as “great people with a great reputation”.
