Four elders at Gateway Church, whose senior pastor stepped down earlier this 12 months, have been removed after the outcomes of a law firm’s investigation of sexual abuse allegations against the pastor were announced in a sermon on Sunday.
The removals are the newest responses by one in all the country’s largest evangelical Christian churches to allegations brought by Cindy Clemishire in June that Gateway’s founding pastor, Robert Morris, 63, had molested her within the Eighties, when Morris was in his 20s and she or he was 12.
Soon afterward, also in June, the church retained law firm Haynes and Boone to conduct an investigation, which, church elder Tra Willbanks announced on Sunday, had found that every one but three elders had been aware of Morris’ history with Clemishire, now 54, and her age on the time of the alleged abuse.
“We now know that there have been elders and employees at Gateway who knew before June 14, 2024, that Cindy was 12 on the time of the abuse,” church elder Tra Willbanks said. “Both groups are fundamentally flawed and easily cannot and is not going to be tolerated at Gateway Church.”
Morris publicly acknowledged his involvement with a young woman two days after Clemishire made her accusations, and Gateway leaders acknowledged in an announcement that he had confessed to “an ethical failure he had over 35 years ago,” but initially said they’d no idea the person involved was a toddler.
Clemishire has disputed that claim, saying that a church leader responded to an email she sent in 2005 informing them of her age. A transcript later got here to light wherein Morris discussed making a payment to Clemishire in restitution.
On Sunday, Willbanks forcefully said church leaders support Clemishire. “What happened to Cindy Clemishire was heartbreaking and vile,” he said. “We denounced sexual abuse in all of its forms, and we feel deep sorrow for individuals who have been victimized by such despicable actions,” he added.
The investigation’s results also prompted reforms to Gateway’s leadership structure and bylaws. Church staff will now not function elders, Willbanks said.
“We must bring this level of independence and objectivity to our eldership, and it has been lacking within the years past,” he said.
In early October, some members filed a lawsuit claiming financial misconduct on the church. On Sunday, Willbanks said the church is cooperating with a criminal investigation into the claims as well, but said the church just isn’t the topic of the investigation. He also reported that Morris had made financial demands, which the church plans to reject.
Last 12 months, Lifeway Research, at the side of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, listed Gateway, which Morris founded in 2000, because the ninth largest within the United States and one in all the fastest growing, with about 25,000 worshippers attending every Sunday. On Nov. 1, nonetheless, the Dallas Morning News reported that attendance is down by 40% on the principal campus in Southlake.
Morris was a member of Donald Trump’s evangelical advisory board during his 2016 presidential campaign, and in 2021 took part in an initiative to energise conservatives ahead of Trump’s 2024 run for president. Trump visited the church in 2020 during his failed reelection bid. In 2017, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott enlisted Morris to support his push for a bill restricting access to bathrooms for transgender children.
The summer’s allegations prompted state legislators to call for changing the statute of limitations for sexual assault, harsher penalties for mandatory reporters who fail to follow up on accusations and reforming nondisclosure agreements for sexual abuse survivors. Secular and non secular advocacy organizations have been pushing for such reforms, in addition to the elimination of the usage of nondisclosure agreements in sexual assault cases.
State Rep. Jeff Leach, a conservative Christian who chairs the powerful Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee, told an area NBC affiliate he plans to make use of his pulpit to vary laws to profit survivors of sexual assault.
“As a born-again believer, I like the bride of Christ. I would like to guard the church. But the church in lots of cases, like within the case of the pulpit at Gateway, has been defiled,” he said. “We must be stepping up and turning over tables and protecting victims.”
© Religions News Service
