🔗 Share this article Large Church Pastor and FormerTrump Counselor Admits Guilt to Sexual Abuse of a Minor The founder of one of the largest megachurches in the United States, Robert Morris, has pleaded guilty to molesting a young girl in the state of Oklahoma during the 1980s. The pastor, 64, entered a guilty plea on that day in Osage county district court on five criminal counts of inappropriate acts with a minor. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but as part of a plea deal will only serve six months in county jail. He will be listed as a registered offender and be required to pay $250,000 in restitution. Context of the Legal Matter The former minister founded Gateway church in the city of Southlake, Texas. He expanded it into among the ten biggest megachurches in the United States, with more than 25,000 visitors each week. Cindy Clemishire, 55, the woman who came forward as the survivor of Morris’s sexual abuse, was present in the courtroom as he pleaded guilty. In a prepared statement she stated: “It is impossible to have agreement from a 12-year-old child. We were never in an ‘inappropriate relationship’. I was not a young woman but a child. You committed a crime against me.” Her sibling Karen Black also made a declaration, stating: “You pretended to be holy, preaching from big pulpits. As you hid behind your facade, we’ve known you are nothing but a predator.” Morris resigned from the church last year after Clemishire made her story known. She had spent years trying to hold her abuser accountable. Details of the Abuse The abuse started in the year 1982 when Morris, then 21, was a travelling evangelist. He stayed with the family in their home, where he asked the girl into his room. The molestation continued for the following four years. A revealed recording of a phone call showed that in 2005, the pastor attempted to pay off Clemishire into not speaking out, saying to her to “put a price on it”. Fall from Grace and Connections The guilty verdict signals a dramatic downfall for the minister. At his height, he wrote multiple popular books and his teachings were transmitted globally. He also became a spiritual adviser to the former president. He joined the presidential advisory group during the first Trump presidency and was involved in an effort to mobilize religious voters for him in the recent election. The former president also attended the church in 2020 where he praised the pastor and his leadership as “great people with a great reputation”.