It seems that part of my life was spent dealing with the moral failures of renown preachers. The first time I came across such an event was in second grade. The previous three years, my older brother and I had attended a Christian School which was part of the ministry of a fundamentalist Baptist church. A few months after we left, my family found out that the fellow who was the senior pastor was a serial adulterer and that he had run off with the wife of a teacher at the school, stealing thousands of dollars which were raised by the children of the school for a new gymnasium. I was only six years old at the time, and most of the details were not understood until I was an adult. Since then, I have felt only the worst trepidation when anything of that sort played out anywhere. Including this recent one at Gateway Church which caused the resignation Pastor Robert Morris.
The story about Robert Morris is a somewhat confusing one in that the accusation dates back to the early 1980s when he entered ministry as a youth pastor in a Baptist Church that was part of the Southern Baptists Convention. He was an up-and-coming preacher but by his own admission, he had problems with sexual sin as a youth.
In 1982, the 20 year old Morris while serving as youth pastor in a church in Oklahoma began (in his own words) “an inappropriate sexual relationship” with a 12-year old Cindy Clemenshire-now a 54 year old grandmother. Clemenshire calls it “sexual seduction”, “sexual molestation”, “sexual abuse”, “rape.”
For most of the Christian community who has parted ways with Robert Morris, the offence is not so much the fact of the “inappropriate sexual relationship”-which Morris confessed. But rather the detail that those actions involved a minor-a girl who was 12 years old at the time. And that it continued for four years. That part of the story did not make it into Morris’ confession before Gateway Church’s board or membership.
The young Morris was found out by the church in Oklahoma in 1987. He said he confessed and repented and put himself under the correction of church leadership, which also involved the father of Ms. Clemenshire. During those two years, he went through counseling and other recovery ministries, before being allowed to enter ministry again, which according to Morris involved receiving the forgiveness and blessing of Ms. Clemenshire’s father. Clemenshire does not deny that her father extended forgiveness but does say that in no way did he agree to Morris entering ministry again.
Morris said that since that time, he walked in moral purity. He is married to his wife Debbie (who was in the same church back in 1982) and they have four children, all grown up with families of their own, and at least two of them were involved in the ministry of Gateway Church. With his exit from the church, they too have left.
To complete the fall, the Christian television network Daystar TV, which had a close relationship to Morris and Gateway completely disassociated him and all programming involved with the church in a matter of hours after the allegations were made public. In the last few weeks, other Christian media, denominations, groups, and personalities have disassociated or distanced themselves from him as well.
Robert Morris was the founding pastor of Gateway Church, and the face of its ministry for more than 30 years. He led them to become one of the largest churches in the nation. The church had several satellite locations in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex and was very much involved in Christian media and entertainment. Their music department garnered talented singers such as Kari Jobe. They supported many up-and-coming churches and ministries financially as well as with spiritual oversight. (Even before his resignation, an official from one small Bible institute told me that Gateway Church gave a much needed multi-million-dollar contribution to the school as the Fall semester begins.)
On the Gateway campus, is The King’s University and Seminary-a seminary begun by Dr. Jack Hayford who moved the headquarters of this college from California to the church campus in Southlake, Texas. Morris was trusted enough by Dr. Hayford, not only in the moving of the school, but also to be a part of its faculty, and later to lead its administration. No easy feat.
Gateway Church is trying to move on, but that is proving difficult as Morris was the most notable representative of the megachurch with a popular television program that was watched by millions every week. Most of the church’s Board of Directors have resigned under the dark cloud of covering up for Robert Morris in regard to the alleged allegations.
Ms. Clemenshire talks of Robert Morris as a sexual predator, alluding to other victims…we shall see. Her lawyer is Mr. Boz Tchividjian who has also been active in trying to influence the “court of public opinion” via the media. According to them, these allegations have been known to the Gateway board for the last twenty years, and furthermore they are seeking restitution-particularly in money. They are making rounds in Christian media and talking about their “personal journey of faith”. It would not surprise me if Tchividjian takes the position of that “brave soul” who is weeding out a hypocrite and predator from the body of Christ. He has, on social media, attacked Robert Morris as such, going so far as to call for him to be imprisoned.
I will not address the accusation itself. The ethical issues with regards to ministry have been talked about many times and I have nothing more to add or subtract from it. As someone who has watched the ministry of Robert Morris and Gateway Church from a distance, I am saddened at the fall that took place in his life.
I do not want to impugn the character of either Clemenshire or Tchividjian, but there is a sickening feeling that this whole thing is extremely vindictive and nasty and has little to do with justice or righteousness. Especially, if no other victim is to be found since Robert Morris’ return to ministry.
(For those who do not know, Boz Tchividjian is one of the late Dr. Billy Graham’s grandchildren and brother of Presbyterian preacher Tullian Tchividjian-who ironically had a devastating moral failure which destroyed his family and his pastorate at the Corral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Florida.)
There are certain lessons that are to be learned, or shall I say relearned.
First, we are to ask the question about Restoration and Grace. Despite what we believe and proclaim from Scripture, is there, in practice, such a possibility in the Church now? Perhaps it was moment of weakness, namely fear, that made him want to hide the most pivotal detail of his personal failure, namely that he had an inappropriate relationship of a sexual nature with a child who was 12 years old, while he was 20. As a preacher of the Gospel, I carry the same ire for Morris that many, if not all, of my Pentecostal/Evangelical brethren carry toward him now. He has hurt all of us.
Was Robert Morris supposed to tell everyone at some point what happened when he was a 20-year-old youth pastor? Like it or not, I believe he had no choice in that matter. He had to. And then let the Holy Spirit be responsible for the rest. Could he have lost his ministerial impact and influence? Almost certainly. It is painful, but from the perspective of Scripture and after much reflection, I believe that is the only answer if one is to walk in the Truth, and with the prime concern for the people in the church.
But there is a problem beyond Robert Morris.
Are people like Ms. Clemenshire to be given carte blanche to forever haunt their victimizers despite all the repentance, therapy, and begging for forgiveness? Are we in the church to bring back the old Puritan punishment of the Scarlett Letter?
If sexual sins are a death sentence to someone’s personal and professional life, no matter how much regret, remorse, repentance, therapy, and counseling-then at least let us be clear about that point. Why should we give false hope to youths or adults who have fallen prey to sexual sins, or have problems with it, even to the point of endangering themselves or others physically?
I ask the leaders of the church world today, what is to be our response if a 20-year-old makes a confession of something provocative, with all the gory details added; What is to be our response? And let’s not restrict that question only to preachers. The times in which we live are such that those kinds of confessions are coming with increasing frequency from clergy as well as commoners. Evangelists, Preachers, Sunday School teachers all encourage adults and youth to “confess their sins”. Many come (and will come) and confess the wrongs of what they have done. I warn people entering into ministry to be careful of what they are doing because they have no idea what kind of information is going to be divulged from people who were/are in bondage to Sin. Are you ready to hear the kind of confessions that would result in you not only staying awake at night, but also having to call law enforcement for behavior that happened in secret?
Most people in the Church as a whole, and in ministry do not know of the vile nature of Sin unless they have been in the “confessional”. As a Bible-believing Pentecostal preacher, I cannot absolve anyone from their sins as the Roman Catholic priest does for his parishioners. But believers, and even fellow pastors often come to talk to someone to whom they can unburden themselves, pray with, seek counsel from, or even be accountable to, for discipline’s sake. And I say that last point not in the idea of punishment, but rather spiritual correction leading to maturity.
The things people confess or talk about, or request prayer for, can be troubling, to say the least. More than a few times, I have been shocked. By Law, in the United States if a parishioner confesses to a crime, something criminal, or something dangerous, it is up to the pastor or priest who is hearing him/her to call the police. That decision almost always is tied to the type of person that pastor is, what type of background he comes from, and what kind of ministry that local church represents.
Gateway is not a church that that dwells too much on the topic about the ugliness of Sin before God. That’s not to say that they totally avoid the subject like many other modernized megachurches and preachers do (most notably Joel Osteen and Steve Furtick), but the horribleness of Sin and the dreadfulness of the sacrifice on the Cross of Calvary are not subjects that they like to spend too much time on. When it comes time to put theology into practice, it leads to a habit of quickly avoiding the details and limiting the consequences.
Fifty years ago, Sanctification was a major pursuit of the Church in doctrine and witness. Often times in today’s glamorous and glitzy church environment, it is dismissed with not even a second thought. That said, the following must be pointed out at this moment: Robert Morris ministered to great success in Gateway Church. It seems that everyone wants to forget that Robert Morris went through 2 years of counseling, ministerial probation (within the framework of a denomination) …he went through all the steps of recovery that apply to fallen ministers to recuperate them back to legitimacy. He ministered to great success the subsequent 4 decades and there (as of yet) does not seem to be any other victims. And while his fall is shocking, I hope that the Church world does not commit overkill in the opposite direction.
It seems that the leadership of many churches and denominations are focused on hiring private investigators, lawyers, anyone and everyone who can help with crisis management without searching the Word of God for direction and balance while pursuing the safety strategies. As a result, the various spiritual/help ministries of the church have almost been reduced to a punchline.
If the rehabilitation ministry of the Church is as big a sham as the mental health industry purporting to help people with psychological or emotional problems, then let us say that loud and clear, and doom anyone that comes for help to a lifetime status of anger and bitterness and vindictiveness in the name of victimhood.
We all live by the Grace of God. Perhaps we need to learn its Source-The Cross of Calvary-and its ultimate summation in the power of the Resurrected Jesus Christ. Maybe that is the answer. I hate to say it, but after hearing from everyone in this matter, at the end of the day, I am not for or against anyone in this story. I stand at the foot of the Cross and am looking out into the world that Jesus Christ looked at from that Cross. At the foot of that Cross where His Blood flowed to wash sinners clean from their sins, and by which His Church was given birth on this earth.
The whole gamut of characters in this story has brought nothing but shame to the message and cause of Jesus Christ before the eyes of the world because each party in this story claims to be His, representing Him, speaking for Him. Instead, all parties in this this mess are a reflection ON Him. Not one of them can honestly say that they know or reflected on the Cross of Calvary at any point with regards to this mess. If Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Church, the one who hung and bled on the Cross, was truly the focus…victimizers and victims would have fallen on their faces at that Cross.
Ms Clemenshire told CBN news that she has begun a petition in the state of Oklahoma to take away the statute of limitations with regards to child sexual abuse, and probably for adults as well. Her doing so while she attacks Morris within the perspective of the church will result in a collision course.
And that is where we are now.
In light of the Cross of Calvary, we must be very careful. We risk having ministry with the proverbial ‘iron fist’ of justice/revenge (depending on the person) cloaked in the ‘velvet glove’ of religion. At the end of the day, who cares about Christian witness, testimony, or claims of healing and deliverance? Who cares about the that passage in the 2 Corinthians 5:17, which says if any man be in Christ, “he is a new creature…old things have passed away, behold all things have become new”-does it have any practical power or value? Why should we ever preach the promise of Isaiah 53:5; “by His stripes we are healed.” Every Church, every denomination, will have to decide what it is that they believe with regards to the Word of God, the Cross, and everything we believe from them.
Those of us in Church leadership have the most frightful responsibility. Standing as close to the Cross as possible and facing the sinful world Jesus Christ saw from it. May God give us clarity. In closing, I can only pray for all the parties involved. I hope that a true journey of Faith would take place in every person with a focus on Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and that everyone in the Body of Christ will understand that at the Cross we are called to surrender ourselves, to die to ourselves, so that His resurrection power will work in them. And be the ultimate testimony of the Church in our time.
POSTSCRIPT: At this point Gateway Church is beginning the search for a new pastor. In the meantime they have asked Max Lucado to come in as their interim pastor. Lucado is currently pastoring Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, and while I respect him as an author and speaker, his selection makes it clear that Gateway Church is an independent church that despite some Pentecostal Experience, could move in any direction in regard to selecting their next Pastor. May the Lord give them guidance.