Large Church Minister and Ex-Trump Adviser Pleads Guilty to Child Sexual Abuse
The head of one of the largest large congregations in the US, the pastor, has pleaded guilty to molesting a 12-year-old girl in the state of Oklahoma during the 1980s.
Morris, 64, entered a guilty plea on Thursday in the local court on multiple charges of lewd or indecent acts with a minor. He was given a sentence to 10 years in custody, but under an agreement will serve only half a year in local jail.
He will register as a registered offender and be required to pay $250,000 in compensation.
Context of the Case
The former minister established the church in Southlake, Texas. He expanded it into one of the top 10 largest large churches in the United States, with over twenty-five thousand attendees each week.
The victim, fifty-five, the woman who came forward as the survivor of Morris’s sexual abuse, was present in the courtroom as he pleaded guilty. In a written declaration she stated: “It is impossible to have consent from a 12-year-old child. We were not involved in any improper relationship. I was not a young woman but a child. You performed a criminal act against me.”
Her sibling Karen Black also made a declaration, stating: “You pretended to be holy, preaching from big pulpits. As you concealed your true self, we’ve been aware you are nothing but a predator.”
The pastor resigned from the church last year after Clemishire went public. She had spent years seeking justice for the abuse.
Details of the Abuse
The molestation began in 1982 when Morris, at age twenty-one, was a travelling evangelist. He was a guest of Clemishire’s family in their residence, where he asked the girl into his bedroom.
The abuse continued for the next four-year period.
A leaked transcript of a conversation showed that in 2005, Morris tried to bribe the victim into silence, saying to her to “put a price on it”.
Fall from Grace and Associations
The guilty verdict signals a dramatic downfall for the minister. At his height, he wrote several bestselling books and his teachings were transmitted globally.
He also served as a spiritual adviser to Donald Trump. He joined the presidential advisory group during the first Trump presidency and was part of a campaign to mobilize religious voters for him in last year’s presidential campaign.
Trump also attended the church in 2020 where he praised Morris and his senior team as “wonderful individuals with a great reputation”.
