CNN
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A Dallas-area megachurch accepted the resignation of senior pastor Robert Morris on Tuesday after allegations of a previous inappropriate relationship with a 12-year-old surfaced final week.
The Board of Elders of Gateway Church mentioned in an announcement Tuesday that previous to June 14, they didn’t have all of the details of the abuse.
“The elders’ prior understanding was that Morris’s extramarital relationship, which he mentioned many instances all through his ministry, was with ‘a younger girl’ and never abuse of a 12-year-old little one,” the assertion reads.
“Regardless that it occurred a few years earlier than Gateway was established, as leaders of the church, we remorse that we didn’t have the data that we now have.”
The elders mentioned they have been “heartbroken and appalled” and expressed sympathy to the sufferer and her household.
“After I was in my early twenties, I used to be concerned in inappropriate sexual habits with a younger girl in a house the place I used to be staying. It was kissing and petting and never intercourse, nevertheless it was incorrect. This habits occurred on a number of events over the subsequent few years,” the pastor mentioned in an announcement.
The lady, Cindy Clemishire, instructed WFAA the abuse began on Christmas Day in 1982 and continued till 1987, when she instructed her mother and father. The Wartburg Watch, a church watchdog weblog, first reported her account Friday.
Clemishire has blended emotions in regards to the information of Morris’ resignation, she mentioned in an announcement launched by means of her lawyer.
“Although I’m grateful that he’s not a pastor at Gateway, I’m disillusioned that the Board of Elders allowed him to resign,” she mentioned.
“He ought to have been terminated.”
Morris’ habits was “dropped at mild” in 1987 whereas he was a pastor at Shady Grove Church in Grand Prairie, which has since change into considered one of Gateway Church’s 11 places, WFAA reported.
“In March of 1987, this example was dropped at mild, and it was confessed and repented of. I submitted myself to the Elders of Shady Grove Church and the younger girl’s father. They requested me to step out of ministry and obtain counseling and freedom ministry, which I did. Since that point, I’ve walked in purity and accountability on this space,” Morris mentioned in his assertion, including he and his spouse met with the survivor and her household in 1989.
“I requested their forgiveness, and so they graciously forgave me,” he mentioned.
Clemishire instructed WFAA that although her household forgave him, they by no means supported Morris returning to the ministry.
“I believe leaders can get caught up and suppose it’s our accountability to guard God and it’s not. Our accountability is to guard the folks,” she added. “God is larger than all of that.”