Gateway Church has removed four of its elders after an internal investigation into a former pastor’s abuse of a child showed they had information about the issue and did nothing.
Pastor Robert Morris resigned in June after admitting he had molested Cindy Clemishire for four yers starting when she was 12 in the 1980s. Though the abuse had occurred long before he founded the Texas megachurch, he had long portrayed it as an “extramarital relationship” that he had in his early 20s. Church elders said they had taken him at his word.
In June, Clemishire went public, and the church hired the law firm Haynes and Boone for an in-depth, independent investigation.
On Saturday, Gateway elder Tra Willbanks said the investigation found “all but three” elders actually had more information than they let on, and had been removed. A criminal investigation is also under way, Willbanks noted, and the church is cooperating, though it is not a target nor is current leadership, reported WFAA-TV.
He said some of the elders had known about the abuse but didn’t inquire further, and others had known Clemishire’s age when it began.
YouTube / Gateway Church
Gateway Church Elder Tra Willbanks speaks at Gateway Church on Saturday. (YouTube / Gateway Church)
“There were two groups. There was one group that knew without a doubt that Cindy was 12 when this abuse began and there was a second group who knew of allegations of sexual abuse by Robert Morris, who had enough information that they should have led them to ask more questions and inquire further, but they did not,” Willbanks said in a live-streamed service Saturday, according to KXAS-TV. “Both groups are fundamentally wrong and simply cannot and will not be tolerated at Gateway Church.”
He also praised Clemishire for coming forward.
“What happened to Cindy was heartbreaking and vile, and we denounce any sexual abuse in all of its forms,” Willbanks said, according to The Christian Post. “We feel deep sorrow for those who have been victimized by such despicable actions, but I do want to take a minute, and I just want to appreciate Cindy for her bravery and for telling her story for helping bring some awareness to this issue. She has positively impacted countless lives.”
Kevin Grove, Thomas Miller, Jeremy Carrasco and Gayland Lawshe are no longer listed as elders on the megachurch’s website.
Clemishire, now 54, said in June that church elders knew the circumstances, and pressed for a deeper investigation, insisting she could not have been Morris’s only victim.
“The leadership at Gateway received actual notice of this crime in 2005 when I sent an email directly to Robert Morris’ Gateway email address,” the Oklahoma grandmother said in a statement in June through her lawyer, Boz Tchividjian. An elder “received and responded to my email, acknowledging that the sexual abuse began on December 25, 1982, when I was 12 years old.”
