Megachurch Pastor Robert Morris resigns after being accused of molesting 12-year-old girl

A Texas megachurch pastor is unemployed and his own board has changed course to defend him after allegations emerged that he sexually abused a preteen girl for years, starting the age of 12.

Robert Morris, founder of Gateway Church in Southlake and former spiritual adviser to former President Donald Trump, resigned and was criticized Tuesday by the church's board of elders — just days after the group defended him vehemently as a reformed man.

The elders claimed the sudden change of heart happened after learning of all the allegations from accuser Cindy Clemishire.

“Unfortunately, prior to Friday, June 14, elders did not know all of the facts regarding the inappropriate relationship between Morris and the victim, including her age at the time and the duration of the abuse,” the board of directors said. Gateway Church in a statement. .

“Elders previously understood that Morris' extramarital affair, which he had spoken about repeatedly throughout his ministry, involved a 'young woman' and not abuse of a 12-year-old child.

“Although this occurred many years before Gateway was established, as Church leaders we regret that we do not have the information we currently have. »

Board members — who oversee one of the largest megachurches in the United States, with 100,000 members — said they were heartbroken and dismayed by the allegation, apologizing and expressing their sympathy to Clemishire and his family.

Clemishire says she was groomed for abuse by the pastor from the age of 12 until she was 16 in the 1980s.

She also blasted Morris' dismissive description of what happened when he said he had a brief affair with a “young woman.”

“It was kissing and caressing and not sexual intercourse, but it was wrong,” Morris told The Christian Post.

The resignation comes after Clemishire called on Morris to step down for proving he had not yet truly repented of his actions.

“I don't know if anyone deserves to be reinstated in their position when they committed criminal acts on a child,” Clemishire told NBC News on Monday.

“I believe people can be restored when they are caught doing something if they show true repentance, but when you lie about it, I don't believe that's true repentance. “

Clemishire, now a 54-year-old grandmother, added: “I was an innocent little girl of 12 who knew nothing about sexual behavior.”

Clemishire was also outraged by Morris's suggestion that her father had given her his blessing to return to the ministry.

“My father never gave his blessing to Robert's return to the ministry! ” she says. “My father told him he was lucky he didn’t kill him. I am mortified that he is telling the world that my father gave his blessing!

Clemishire spent decades trying to hold Morris accountable, with the pastor initially resigning from the church for two years before returning.

She attempted to press charges against Morris in 2005, but Morris' lawyer suggested she caused the abuse because she was “flirtatious.”

They eventually offered her $25,000 if she signed a nondisclosure agreement, but she refused.