‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked.’ Ezekiel 33:11
“As long as I live, I’ll take no pleasure in the death of a Christian ministry” – Wade Burleson.
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Note: I received the news that Robert Morris had stepped down five minutes before I posted.
Social media, national news, and international news agencies are ablaze with the news that Pastor Robert Morris began sexually molesting a 12-year-old girl for nearly five years, starting Christmas Day, 1982, and ending when the girl’s father discovered the abuse in 1987.
I have not slept well. My initial anger over discovering Robert Morris’ abuse of Cindy Clemishire has, with the tsunami of news coverage, turned to pity for the Robert Morris family.
Before you judge me for my pity, allow me to explain.
I have some friends (like many of you) who have been guilty of child sexual abuse at one time in their lives. They’ve carried the stain of their sin (crime) throughout life.
One child sex offender, whom I call a friend, is now in his 70s. He’s a remarkable Christian man who genuinely loves Christ and others.
His crime occurred decades ago. He’s been tagged throughout his adult life as “a sexual offender,” but he’s learned to take his identity from God’s grace in Jesus Christ.
God’s grace defines who he is, but the law of the land determines what he can do.
Consequences of crimes are cultural and temporal; forgiveness of crimes is personal and eternal.
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Wade Burleson is preaching in an orange prison jumpsuit to illustrate to prisoners that “You are not defined by the clothes you wear, but by the cross you bear.”
RULES FOR CHILD MOLESTERS IN WORSHIP
- We had to be informed when they were coming.
- Once they stepped foot on the property, they were escorted.
- They could never be around children or walk through the children’s wing– for life.
- The photo of the sexual offender with their background and the specificity of the crimes was passed around to all church leaders and children workers.
- The photo was hung on the wall in our print room for all staff to see.
- If any child sexual offender ever violated these guidelines, the police were called.
- These guidelines were the proper consequences of their crime of child sexual molestation.
My friendship with the child sexual offenders was (and is) real. I’ve forgiven them, I love them, and they love me.
I taught them that “grace” defines who they are and that state “law” defines what they can do.
To be candid, my understanding of the dangers of child sexual abuse and the dangerous trauma involved has expanded over time.
Harvey Weinstein’s private pilot, Kevin Taylor, began watching me teach the Scriptures online. In 2017, Kevin was diagnosed with terminal cancer. A few months later, I flew to California to spend time with Kevin and his family for his death. This trip transformed my understanding of sexual abuse and the power of offenders to control the narrative. Some of those nameless girls in the back of Harvey Weinstein’s plane were minors working as models or actresses.
Weinstein’s pilot, Kevin Taylor, died with regret that he did not do more to stop what was happening in Harvey Weinstein’s plane.
Moms Know Best
Mary Burleson (mother) and Wade Burleson (the author)
I called my mom yesterday. In pity for the Robert Morris family, I said:
“Mom, many people are saying on the Internet that the child sexual abuse of Cindy happened decades ago. They’re saying, ‘Forgive Robert!’ He’s been restored! I struggle because I have friends who’ve committed child sexual abuse. You know I’ve fought for abuse victims for the last seventeen years, but my heart goes out to Robert Morris and his family. I am not taking any pleasure in the death of his ministry. We both know child abusers who’ve been forgiven and are humble Christians now. Help me understand what I’m missing about Robert Morris.
My mom responded:
“There’s something “off” in a person who would sexually abuse a child. Something mental, emotional, spiritual, or psychological is off. Sure, the child sexual perpetrator can eventually be forgiven and even healed if there is genuine repentance. However, a child abuse victim has a lifetime sentence of hurt. Should not the perpetrator carry a lifetime sentence of recovery as well? This isn’t a matter of forgiveness. You can forgive Robert Morris, but he’s forever disqualified from pastoral ministry. We love broken, sexual child abusers who love Jesus. We don’t make them Senior Pastors.”
A Gateway Member
Gateway Church, Southlake, Texas
Fifteen years ago (2009), a member of Gateway Church came across a post on Oprah Winfrey’s website in response to a show about Ted Haggard, the disgraced Colorado megachurch pastor who was replaced by a pastor from Gateway (see post below).
A woman commented claimed to have been “molested” by a pastor at Gateway Church. That woman was Cindy Clemishire, Robert Morris’ victim.
This member of Gateway (who wishes to remain anonymous) responded to my friend Cindy’s comment. Cindy Clemishire, the 12-year-old girl abused by Robert Morris, even went online to get someone to listen after being rebuffed repeatedly by church leaders and elders.
This Gateway member and Cindy connected via email. In February 2009, this Gateway member requested a meeting with Robert Morris to get an explanation of the abuse. Here is an email she sent to Pastor Morris directly.
Pastor Robert,
My husband and I are Gateway members, and this has been my church home for the past 6 years. I want to first thank you for your Bible-based, practical teaching and for helping to build such a dynamic, Christ-centered church. We absolutely love it here.
Because of my respect for you and Gateway, I was very surprised to read a post on an Internet message board in response to the Ted Haggard appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show yesterday. This person made some off-hand comments involving you that I was very taken aback by. I have no desire to listen to false rumors, so I wanted to ask you directly about this. (See attached PDF document for the correspondence. There are 3 pages — one post/e-mail per page.)
Of course, I don’t want to believe that these comments are true. I remember you mentioning that you had a dark past before getting saved, but these events supposedly happened after that. Usually, when I read something negative about someone I respect, I am able to gloss over it, assuming that it’s false. However, having read these person’s comments and explanation, I’m having a hard time figuring out what to think about this information. It doesn’t seem to be someone who is out to slander Gateway, as they didn’t mention you by name until they sent me a private message in response to my inquiry.
Obviously, the private details of your life are your own business. But this was something that I felt I had to share with you, because — as I’m sure you understand — reading this about your pastor and leader is hard to swallow. And just forgetting about it without coming to some kind of conclusion is impossible. In addition, I think it’s important that you know someone is saying this about you in a forum that is widely read (message boards on Oprah’s Web site).
I look forward to your reply. Again, I’m just trying to make heads or tails of this. That’s why I contacted you directly and privately. Thank you again for your awesome preaching and leadership of Gateway.
Instead, two “Executive Pastors” (Tom Lane and David Smith) were sent to meet with this concerned Gateway member. Listen to the Gateway member’s synopsis of that 2009 meeting (she sent this to me this afternoon)
– They quickly reframed this as a brief, consensual affair with no intercourse between two adults. It was implied that they were very close in age.
– They said that “this woman” would pop her head up every few years and they would have to deal with it. I now see that as trying to suppress the real story. I believe that’s why the second-in-command (Tom Lane) at a large church was willing to meet with me in person about this.
– They said Pastor Robert had wanted to share more from the pulpit, but the elders did not think it was necessary and thought it would be a distraction to his message. They said it was sufficient that the elders / board members knew, and that it was so far in the past that it didn’t need to be brought up now.
– I left the meeting feeling reassured that this wasn’t what I thought it was. Now I look back and see it was so much worse than I had even imagined.
– I believe they took advantage of the fact that their church members, including me, had underwent years of brainwashing to believe in submitting to their spiritual authority, the leaders could do no wrong, there is a hierarchy we all have to respect, we will be blessed when we respect the authority, etc.
All of this – along with me being only in my 20s – framed my mindset and why I was so willing to believe them. They are also pretty smooth talkers and come across in a very polished, disarming way. They were not combative at all, so it was easy to believe they were being honest and open.
Serious Questions
I wrote a book called Fraudulent Authority: Pastors Who Seek To Rule Over People.
My remarkable friend, Jim Milonas, Executive Director of the Christian Fellowship Community, told me this morning:
“The structure of the modern church is top-down authority. Pastors with authority get by doing things that should disqualify them because the modern church is more about submission to authority than community.”
Jim, you are right. Gateway, I hope you understand the issue and respond correctly to this scandal.
Robert Morris can be forgiven. He and his family can be loved.
But Robert Morris is forever disqualified from serving as a Pastor in Christ’s church.
That is a shame. Thank you for sharing.
Wade, that is a beautiful picture of you and your mom. Godly moms with Godly counsel are an eternal treasure. Her counsel is exactly what I would have expected. Of course I am prejudice since my wife and I have been the recipient of this counsel for over 45 years due the relationship we have with her and cherished with your dad. The issue here is not a matter of forgiveness but understanding the consequences of our choices and our identity in the grace of Christ. Thank you for your openness in expressing your brokenness for the death of a ministry.
Your mom is so wise and correct to say…” If there’s genuine repentance”. From what I’ve read so far, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Is there Godly sorrow, or only sorrow for being caught? He sounds self-convinced, and therefore delusional. Again your mom is correct that it’s a mental instability and sickness. He has sinned against God first, that’s where his confession should begin.
I’m happy to hear that he will not be in leadership and ministry. Sad for the church and will pray for those believers to not turn away from their faith journey.
“Wisdom is the principal thing. In all of your getting, get understanding!”
I would like to understand how to evaluate God’s restoration of David as King, despite his crime and sin of adultery & murder- both of which were qualifying of a death sentence under Mosaic Law! Kindly shed light🙏
From svidgen. About the best answer to your question online.
“Why was King David restored after adultery and murder and not stoned, like the Mosaic Law required?”
This question isn’t really a Christian doctrinal question, I think. But, the most obvious answer here is that they were both kings. And the literal letter of God’s law is always enacted by people (like the King’s army or guards), who are generally under the rule of the king — notably as a sort of proxy for God in the case of the Jews.
So, the king probably has guards, for one. And these guards probably don’t question the king’s actions or authority. The people, therefore, are not likely going to form a clan and go up against the king’s armed guards because he slept around. They’d just be slaughtered.
I.e., no one’s going to stone the king unless God explicitly tells the people to do so via a prophet, even if the king should rightfully be stoned according to the letter of the law! And even then, the king’s guards probably need to be in cahoots with the rebels, so to speak, before the people will actually take action — or at least any successful action.
So, regardless of whether there was a good or strictly legal reason that David and Solomon shouldn’t have been stoned, there’s no practical reason they would have been. And there are plenty of practical de-motivators at work.
I appreciate your response and explanation. Especially the response your mom gave. Such wisdom from her and thank you for sharing. This has been hard to process and navigate with both sides.
I am so sorry this person has lived with the abuse, or that it even happened to her. I too was abused a child. Mine was not dealt with until I was in my 40’s as I suppressed it. I have forgiven my predators, not just predator. I am not advocating for Pastor Robert. We all deal with abuse or situations differently.
I do feel I have a right to pose questions to this person while trying to maneuver this spiritual and emotional situation. My question and concern is why now. Was there absolutely no media that would listen to this woman in her 20’s, 30’s or even 40’s. This abuse was not suppressed, therefore she was able to talk about it and realize what had taken place. Why did her parents not file a police report. I am just having a hard time understanding why this year, why this timing. Why would you wait 35 years if you were willing in 2009 to talk to Oprah Winfrey?
Can you please help me understand the other side of this situation. Again that has zero interest in protecting a predator.
I’m very sorry for the Morris family. I do believe in the forgiveness of sins and the earthly repercussions we may have for it. I’m under the impression he asked for forgiveness and instead of accepting it she wanted money. I have been forgiven of my sins and I repeat, he who is without sin let him be the first to cast the stone.
Well said. My thoughts exactly.
Robert Morris NEVER told the whole truth. His demeanor is totally self-serving. He stated that he is glad she, Cindy, told, covering his sin in his own mind. ” I’m so sorry I molested a child.” Why did he not tell the truth years ago? I feel we are going to see more revelations about Christian? leaders in the future. God Almighty is today “tearing down walls of deceit.” I’m no saint as I daily seek Gods’ forgiveness. Linda
I am still dealing with my own anger with him because of telling a partial truth. I believe in my heart that God gave him many warnings. But he kept on believing his own lie. God is merciful. This was not just an overnight thing that was brought to the forefront. God gave him warnings and he chose to ignore them.
The sheep have been hurt and I believe that Pastor Robert needs to go before the Body and repent not just for his sake, but for the sake of the sheep. This is where healing and restoration will begin. The elders can’t do that for him. They have to answer for themselves .
Really! Robert Morris did not tell the truth. He would have NEVER been a pastor. Child molestation! He knew it! But big house, big car, big money etc. By the way, lf the story is absolutely correct, his wife is also guilty. I really feel sorry for his children. Linda
I just wonder about the two other traveling evangelists who were staying at the home during the same time frame as Pastor Morris and also allegedly molesting the accuser – and for several years (as reported by NBC News). How was that not detected under that family’s roof? What was going on in that household?
The news of this scandal was a punch in the stomach for me as Pastor Robert’s ministry provided me with great spiritual growth as a repentant believer returning to God and his unfailing love. I called in to Pastor Andrew Farley for guidance and received it. I believe Pastor Robert is relieved that his crime has finally been bought to the light. I hope the same for his victim.