Scandal rocks Texas Megachurch: Founder accused of abusing young girl

The founder of a Texas megachurch allegedly sexually abused a 12-year-old girl and several people knew but failed to intervene, a private investigation has found.

Gateway Church in Southlake, near Fort Worth, conducted an investigation involving law enforcement into allegations that founder Robert Morris had a sexual relationship with a 12-year-old girl in the 1980s. The investigation claims that the relationship did indeed occur and that others were aware of it but did not ask additional questions.

Four church elders, Kevin Grove, Thomas Miller, Jeremy Carrasco and Gayland Lawshe, were removed after the investigation was completed.

“We must be honest with ourselves and recognize that our culture allowed this truth to be hidden for too long,” Tra Willbanks, another elder at Gateway Church, said during a worship service Saturday.

Willbanks also called it a “major failure of governance and accountability.”

“If a church focuses solely on one pastor, it has lost its way,” Willbanks said. “And unfortunately in recent months we have come to realize that at some point in the past the culture at Gateway became one in which power was centralized and the leader at the top was surrounded by people who wanted to protect him, some of them at all costs.”

Morris is alleged to have abused the youth between 1982 and 1987, when he was a traveling evangelist in his early 20s.

Cindy Clemshire accused the pastor of repeatedly abusing her during that time.

“There was a group that knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Cindy was 12 when the abuse began, and there was a second group that knew of allegations of sexual abuse by Robert Morris, who had ample information that they should have led. Ask more questions and investigate further, but they didn’t,” Willbanks said.

Clemshire told it CBS News Texas that Morris and his wife were friends with her parents and regularly stayed at their home.

“He said, ‘You can never tell anyone because you’ll ruin everything,’” Clemshire told the outler.

Robert Morris resigned as head of Gateway Church in June. Morris’ son, James Morris, and his wife, Bridget, also resigned from their leadership roles at the church last summer.

Gateway Church was founded in 2000 and is now one of the largest congregations in the country, with over 25,000 attendees. The main campus covers 64 hectares.

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