According to allegations against Pastor Robert Morris: String of Damages
The allegations against Pastor Robert Morris, who led Gateway Church, have brought a chain of consequences ranging up to the removal of thousands of followers.
The summer got off to a turbulent start when allegations of child sexual abuse surfaced. These allegations against Pastor Robert Morris on a blog dedicated to Christian survivor stories were not what many expected.
Robert Morris, who founded and led Gateway Church for nearly 25 years in the affluent Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Southlake, Texas.
After allegations against Pastor Robert Morris resigned, his departure left thousands of evangelicals fighting a months-long battle.
Last week, the pastor who oversaw all Gateway campuses left amid an undisclosed “morale problem,” prompting the latest in a series of changes for the church: the cancellation of its annual conference, departure of Morris’ successor, the renaming of its Houston campus and an exodus of worshippers.
According to allegations against Pastor Robert Morris
The church suffered a 17% to 19% decline in attendance at weekend services following allegations against Pastor Robert Morris.
Staff turnover at the church could have far-reaching effects. Gateway Church draws about 100,000 people to its weekend services and has more than 560 employees at nine locations in Texas and two others in Missouri and Wyoming, according to the church.
This congregation, is considered one of the largest megachurches in the United States, which are congregations with an average weekly worship attendance of 2,000 people or more.
There are nearly 1,800 megachurches in the United States, according to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.
Morris’ position as a public figure goes beyond the size of his former congregation. In 2016, he served on former President Donald Trump’s Evangelical Executive Advisory Council, the campaign announced in a press release at the time.
Trump also held a roundtable at Gateway’s Dallas campus in 2020 and Morris led a prayer before the event.
The allegations against Pastor Robert Morris take hold following a statement from a 54-year-old woman.
Clemishire, 54, told CNN affiliate WFAA that Morris molested her in 1982 when she was 12 years old.
She alleged it began on Christmas Day and continued until she told her parents in 1987, she said.
Shortly after the allegations surfaced, Morris admitted to engaging in “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young girl” in the 1980s.
In its initial response, Gateway Church said the pastor had been “open and frank about a moral failure” that took place when he was in his 20s and working at another church, and had a two-year “restoration process,” according to statements obtained by WFAA.
Morris resigned his position days later.
In a statement announcing his resignation, the Gateway Church Board of Elders said the group did not have all the facts about Morris’ extramarital affair, the age of the victim and the duration of the abuse.
Read here: Federal Abortion Ban: Presidential Veto?
