A megachurch pastor with ties to former President Donald Trump reportedly admitted "inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady" during the 1980s — without acknowledging she was 12 years old when it started.
Robert Morris, founder of the Southlake, Texas-based Gateway Church, was accused Friday of first molesting Cindy Clemishire on Christmas night 1982 while Morris — then a married, traveling evangelist — was staying overnight in the preteen's family home in Hominy, Oklahoma.
The abuse allegedly continued until March 1987, in both Clemishire's house and in Morris' house in Texas, according to the Wartburg Watch website, which publishes allegations of sexual abuse and domestic violence against church leaders.
In a Sunday statement, Morris, 62, said, "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," Dallas TV station WFAA reported.
"It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong. This behavior happened on several occasions over the next few years," the statement said.
After the "situation was brought to light" in March 1987, Morris said, he stopped preaching, received "counselng and freedom ministry" and has since "walked in purity and accountability in this area."
Morris also said that he resumed preaching two years later with the "full blessing" of church elders and the "young lady's father," and that she and her family "graciously forgave me" after a meeting in October 1989.
"This sin was dealt with correctly by confession and repentance, which I did in 1987 and 1989," he said.
In 2000, Morris founded Gateway Church, which now has 100,000 "active attendees" and multiple campuses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, according to the church's website.
He also has a TV show that's seen in nearly 200 countries and a radio program on SiriusXM and stations that reach more than 6,800 cities.
In June 2016, then-candidate Trump appointed Morris to an "executive board" to advise him on issues important to evangelical Christians, according to a news release archived online by the University of California at Santa Barbara.
As president, Trump also visited Gateway's Dallas campus in June 2020 to participate in a roundtable discussion with religious leaders, law enforcement officials and small business owners.
Trump's campaign didn't immediately return a request for comment, CNN reported on Monday.
In an interview with WFAA, Clemishire acknowledged forgiving Morris but disputed his assertion that her father approved his return to the pulpit.
Clemishire, who's reportedly in her 50s, also questioned the sincerity of his claimed repentance.
"He didn't come forward and confess. He was turned in," she said. "When someone is turned in, what are they sorry for? Are they sorry they got caught? Or are they truly repentant of what they did?"
Clemishire has hired lawyer Basyle "Boz" Tchividjian, a grandson of the late televangelist Billy Graham, who specializes in representing victims of abuse by church leaders, WFAA said.
Tchividjian told the station that statutes of limitations would likely prevent criminal charges or civil litigation but Clemishire said, "My hope and prayer is for all of this to be good."
"For the church, for God's glory and for other victims to find freedom," she said.
