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The head of one of the largest large congregations in the United States, the pastor, has admitted guilt to sexually abusing a young girl in Oklahoma during the 1980s period.

Morris, 64, entered a guilty plea on that day in the local court on multiple charges of lewd or indecent acts with a child. He was given a sentence to a decade in custody, but under an agreement will only serve half a year in local jail.

He will be listed as a registered offender and be required to pay a quarter million dollars in restitution.

Context of the Legal Matter

The disgraced pastor founded Gateway church in the city of Southlake, Texas. He expanded it into among the ten biggest large churches in the United States, with over twenty-five thousand visitors weekly.

Cindy Clemishire, fifty-five, 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 written declaration 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 performed a criminal act against me.”

Her sister a family member also read a statement, stating: “You acted as if you were righteous, preaching from large platforms. As you hid behind your facade, we’ve known you are simply a predator.”

The pastor stepped down from the church last year after the victim made her story known. She had spent years trying to hold her abuser accountable.

Specifics of the Incidents

The molestation began in 1982 when the pastor, at age twenty-one, was a travelling evangelist. He stayed with the family in their residence, where he invited the girl into his bedroom.

The molestation continued for the next four-year period.

A revealed recording of a phone call showed that in 2005, Morris attempted to pay off Clemishire into not speaking out, telling her to “name your price”.

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 served as a religious counselor to the former president. He joined the presidential advisory group during the initial Trump administration and was part of a campaign to organize evangelical voters for him in the recent election.

The former president also visited Gateway church in 2020 where he praised the pastor and his leadership as “great people with a great reputation”.