Morris is required to register as a lifetime sex offender, pay over $250,000 in restitution and court costs, and remain on probation for nine and a half years. 5 million lakefront home in Palo Pinto County. Authorities say Morris sexually abused Cindy Clemishire beginning in 1982 when she was 12 years old, during visits to her family's home in Oklahoma while he was a traveling preacher, and the abuse continued for four years.
Clemishire reported the abuse to her parents and church leaders in 1987 and later attempted to pursue allegations in 2005 and 2007. She publicly accused Morris in a blog post online in June 2024, and he resigned that same year. The church's board released a statement saying it was the elders' prior understanding that Morris's extramarital relationship, which he had discussed many times throughout his ministry, was with a young lady and not abuse of a 12-year-old child.
Let me be clear: there is no such thing as consent from a 12-year-old child. You did not just harm me as a child - you stole my innocence, the most sacred possession a child has, and you murdered the future woman, wife, mother, grandmother, sister, daughter, and friend I was meant to become.
Multiple pastors, including Morris's son James, left the church amid the fallout. Morris founded Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, in 2000, growing it into one of the largest megachurches in the country with weekly attendance of about 25,000. In 2016, Donald Trump named Morris a spiritual adviser and member of his evangelical advisory committee, and in 2020, Morris hosted Trump at Gateway Church, where the president praised him as great people with a great reputation.
It remains unclear why charges weren't brought against Morris until decades after Clemishire reported the abuse in 1987, or the specific terms of the plea agreement that resulted in him serving only six months. The current status of Gateway Church following his release and the departure of multiple pastors is also unknown, as is whether there are any ongoing legal or civil actions beyond the criminal conviction and probation.