{"id":24863,"date":"2026-04-02T20:25:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=24863"},"modified":"2026-04-02T20:25:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:25:34","slug":"gateway-church-robert-morris-leaves-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=24863","title":{"rendered":"Gateway Church Robert Morris leaves prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Gateway Church Pastor Robert Morris speaks on March 21, 2020.<\/span>\u00a0(Photo: Gateway Church)<\/span><\/p>\n

Hours after his release from the Osage County Jail in Oklahoma on Tuesday, following his completion of a six-month sentence for sexually abusing Cindy Clemishire for multiple years beginning when she was 12 in the 1980s, Gateway Church founder Robert Morris publicly asked for her forgiveness and reflected on the time he spent behind bars.<\/p>\n

In a statement shared with The Christian Post by his attorney, William B. Mateja, the Southlake, Texas, megachurch founder revealed that his time spent in jail helped him realize even more how wrong he was for abusing Clemishire.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to speak directly to Cindy Clemishire and her family. What I did to Cindy decades ago was wrong. There is no other word for it, and there is no excuse for it. I am deeply sorry. I have carried the weight of that wrong for a very long time, and I am grateful \u2014 genuinely grateful \u2014 that the Clemishires had the courage to bring this into the light,\u201d Morris said in his statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is only in the light that things can truly be addressed and healed. Many years ago, I sought their forgiveness privately, and as Cindy\u2019s father recently noted, he extended that grace to me \u2014 a grace I did not deserve and have never taken for granted. I ask again, publicly, and sincerely, for the forgiveness of Cindy and her entire family. Whatever healing lies ahead for them, I pray for it with all my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to Morris\u2019 statement Tuesday, Clemishire told CP that she forgave Morris a long time ago and hopes his remorse following his time in jail is genuine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI forgave Robert Morris many years ago, and forgiveness is something I continue to walk out \u2014 sometimes daily, as needed. Forgiveness, however, does not erase the truth of what happened or the lifelong impact it has had on me,\u201d she said in a written statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis words today are, in many ways, what any victim would hope to hear. But it is still deeply disheartening that those words were not spoken directly to me and my family on October 2nd, when he stood before the court and pleaded guilty. That moment mattered,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I hope his statement reflects genuine remorse, I cannot know whether those words came from his heart or were carefully prepared for him. What I do know is this: what happened to me on December 25, 1982, when I was 12 years old, was not a relationship \u2014 it was a crime. And it changed the course of my life forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morris was\u00a0indicted\u00a0in March 2025 on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child by a multi-county grand jury in Oklahoma in connection with his actions against the now 55-year-old Clemishire, who\u00a0reported\u00a0that Morris began sexually abusing her on Dec. 25, 1982, when she was 12, and continued with the abuse for four-and-a-half years after that. At the time, Morris was a traveling evangelist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He pleaded guilty last October to accept responsibility, according to his attorney Bill Mateja.<\/p>\n

“He simply accepted responsibility for his crime from the mid-1980s and pled guilty. He pled guilty because he wanted to accept responsibility for his conduct. While he believes that he long since accepted responsibility in the eyes of God \u2014 and that Gateway Church was a manifestation of that acceptance \u2014 he readily accepted responsibility in the eyes of the law by virtue of his guilty plea,” Mateja told CP in an earlier statement after Morris was sentenced.<\/p>\n

Morris, who was also ordered to pay $270,000 in restitution, still faces an\u00a0ongoing defamation lawsuit\u00a0from Clemishire along with Gateway Church.<\/p>\n

In her defamation lawsuit, which has been\u00a0halted pending a mandamus review, Clemishire and her father, Jerry Lee Clemishire, are seeking more than $1 million in damages, alleging that Morris and Gateway Church leaders publicly mischaracterized the abuse she suffered as a consensual “relationship” with a “young lady” instead of the sexual assault of a child after the abuse was made public in 2024.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0petition for mandamus review\u00a0was filed on Nov. 14 by attorneys for Gateway Church and their independent elders John D. “Tra” Willbanks, Kenneth W. Fambro II and Dane Minor. It came after Dallas County District Court Judge Emily Tobolowsky rejected a motion from the church and elders to dismiss the Clemishires’ lawsuit, citing the\u00a0ecclesiastical abstention doctrine, which holds that courts lack jurisdiction over matters of religion.<\/p>\n

In her statement to CP Tuesday, Clemishire insisted that Morris and Gateway Church profited from the mischaracterization of her abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor decades, a false narrative was allowed to exist \u2014 one that minimized the truth and helped build a platform and following, while my life was left in pieces. That reality cannot be overlooked,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy healing journey is ongoing and will be for the rest of my life. But today is not just about me \u2014 it is about truth being acknowledged, and about accountability finally taking place.\u201d<\/p>\n

She thanked Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, District Attorney Gayland Gieger, and lead investigator Kylie Turner for helping to bring Morris to justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir commitment ensured that what was hidden for so long was finally brought into the light,\u201d she said. My hope moving forward is that this case helps create space for other survivors to be heard, believed and protected \u2014 and that the truth is never again rewritten at the expense of a victim\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to seeking Clemishire\u2019s forgiveness, the Texas megachurch founder also apologized to the Body of Christ for the \u201cdamage\u201d he caused.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am sorry for the pain, the confusion and the damage that has come upon so many believers because of my actions. That is a weight I carry, and it is right that I carry it,\u201d Morris wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have thought a great deal about what it means that this was brought to a legal resolution. At first, that was a hard thing to handle. But the more time I spent in that jail cell, the more clearly I could see that what the Clemishire family set in motion was an act of integrity, and that it gave me something I needed \u2014 a moment of true reckoning in the eyes of the law, not just in my own heart or before God,\u201d Morris continued. \u201cIt opened my eyes to things I had not fully seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morris also expressed thanks to the Osage County Jail staff for treating him with \u201cprofessionalism, fairness, and genuine decency, as they did for all inmates.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also expressed thanks to his support system, including his wife, Debbie.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I look ahead, I do not have a grand announcement to make about what comes next. What I have is gratitude \u2014 for Debbie, for my family, for those who loved me when I was hardest to love, and for the mercy that I do not deserve but have been given,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI intend to live quietly and with integrity, and to be the kind of husband, father, grandfather, and man who reflects that mercy in how he treats others. Scripture has always been my anchor, and it remains so now. The apostle Paul wrote in Galatians, \u2018Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows,\u2019\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat verse has been with me through these months. The harvest from seeds I sowed long ago in sin was real, and it was just. But I believe equally in what follows \u2014 that when we turn, and when we sow differently, a different harvest is possible. That is not wishful thinking. That is the promise of grace. I am counting on it, and I am committed to living up to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a9 The Christian Post<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gateway Church Pastor Robert Morris speaks on March 21, 2020.\u00a0(Photo: Gateway Church) Hours after his release from the Osage County Jail in Oklahoma on Tuesday, following his completion of a six-month sentence for sexually abusing Cindy Clemishire for multiple years beginning when she was 12 in the 1980s, Gateway Church founder Robert Morris publicly asked<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[82,606,2408,8264,2660,618],"class_list":{"0":"post-24863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-christian-living","8":"tag-church","9":"tag-gateway","10":"tag-leaves","11":"tag-morris","12":"tag-prison","13":"tag-robert"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}