Gateway Church Investigation Says Some Leaders Knew of Alleged Abuse by Former Pastor Robert Morris

Cindy Clemishire has alleged that Robert Morris, the founder and former senior pastor of Gateway Church in Texas, sexually abused her beginning in 1982, when she was 12 years old. Morris has not been convicted of any offense in connection with these allegations. Clemishire’s attorney, State Representative Jeff Leach, has argued that religious liberty should not shield those accused of serious misconduct.

Clemishire brought a civil case against the church and its leaders. The Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas dismissed the case against the church and three of its elders, citing the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine, which limits civil court jurisdiction over church governance and internal investigations. One report described the outcome as Gateway and Morris winning a defamation case brought by Clemishire. The reports available to this newsroom do not agree on that characterization, and the dismissal was reported as the court’s ruling on the case. Clemishire has since filed a petition asking the Texas Supreme Court to reconsider the dismissal.

Gateway’s handling of the allegations became a separate matter. Morris resigned in June after the allegations were made public. According to Elder Tra Willbanks, the church initiated an independent investigation into the past abuse allegations that month. Willbanks said the findings came from the law firm Haynes & Boone, LLP. Clemishire’s account was released on June 14.

The investigation’s findings, as reported, concluded that some church leaders knew of the abuse allegations. Gateway later removed four elders. The church announced the decision over a weekend and said those elders either knew about the abuse claims or had enough information to investigate further. Longtime Gateway spokesman Lawrence Swicegood has also left his role at the church. The reports do not state whether his departure was connected to the investigation’s findings.

One report also disclosed a criminal probe involving the church, but the available text does not describe its scope, the agency involved, or any charges. No criminal charge against Morris has been reported in the material available to this newsroom. Holding those who were entrusted with responsibility to account for what they knew, as Luke 12:48 presses on the same point, is a theme the removal of the four elders raises in plain terms.

A separate report, headlined as a filing by Gateway Church and its elders to stop a $1 payment, was truncated in the material available to this newsroom. The amount and the full terms of that filing could not be confirmed from the available text.