Robert Morris, a pastor and the founder of Gateway Church, sexually abused a child decades ago. But while the girl grew up with scars, he seemed to thrive without paying for it. Angry that he seemed none the worse off for it, the victim sought restitution over a phone call.
The transcript of that call is currently making rounds. It has revealed that the pastor asked her to put a price on her silence. When he asked her to name her price, the woman, Cindy Clemishire, told him it was not about the money.
However, when he pushed her to name a figure, she demanded two million dollars, according to the transcript. It was seemingly too steep a price, and one moment later, Morris hung up. He did not pay her, and she remained quiet about it for two more decades.
After 20 years of silence, Clemishire went public about what happened. She revealed how, for years, she was a victim of sexual abuse at Morris’s hand. It reportedly started when she was 12 and lasted years.
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Her account was first published on June 14 by the church watchdog site The Wartburg Watch. In response to it, Morris confessed to “inappropriate sexual behavior.” Also, as June ended, he resigned from Gateway, the megachurch he founded 24 years ago.
The first time she asked for compensation for her trauma, Clemishire did so via an email. According to NBC News, a series of emails between Clemishire and Morris was sent from April to October 2005. Most had her demanding compensation for her trauma.
One mail was written when she was 35 on September 20, 2005. It highlighted the pain she still felt and demanded some form of “restitution.” She told him to “Pray about it and call.” Two days later, Morris, his wife by his side, called Clemishire, and the transcript that has now come to light has details of what they talked about.
The document—titled “Transcription of recorded phone conversation with Cindy Clemishire”—was discovered by a former member of Gateway’s IT department. According to the worker, he found the transcript as a Microsoft Word document more than ten years ago while transferring files from Morris’ computer to a new laptop.
The document’s metadata shows it was created on October 19, 2007, about two years after the call. That was also around the time Clemishire and Morris were negotiating a possible legal settlement. But it never panned out.
According to the transcript, the call started with Morris informing Clemishire that his wife was also on the line. Clemishire referred to her emails from that year, telling Morris her plans to go public with her story or seek criminal charges against him unless he paid for his crimes.
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Morris, in response, told her he didn’t think money would help. But Clemishire pointed out how it seemed to be helping him. Morris denied that, saying instead that his years of trying to right the wrong and serving the Lord were helping him.
At the time, Morris was well on his way to becoming a leading national figure among evangelicals. During their conversation, he revisited how he left the ministry and sought counseling in 1987 following a confrontation with Clemishire’s father.
However, she told him the price he had paid was not enough. Morris later said: “Maybe I wasn’t asked to do enough, but I did everything I was asked to do.” The call also saw Clemishire talk about how she came to understand the severity of what Morris did to her.
She mentioned watching interviews of people discussing child molestation and how it helped her realize the truth. Clemishire told Morris it is not fair that she has had such a traumatic life because of what he did while he lives unshackled by any repercussions.
However, the pastor defended himself, saying there had been repercussions over the years. The aggrieved Clemishire pointed out what he would lose if the story went public and confessed that she just wanted to see him pay a price.
However, when she clarified that it was not blackmail, Morris asked her, “Do you want to put an amount on it then?” She eventually did, but before that, Clemishire circled back to something she said had been bothering her for years.
It had to do with a sermon Morris gave, in which he talked about overcoming his sinful past as a young man after hearing God’s words in room 12 of Jake’s Motel in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. Clemishire said she believed the sermon was a lie and that she was the one who forced his repentance because she told her father what he did to her in 1987.
According to the transcript, she told him, “You only changed because you had to.” However, Morris denied it, saying he is grateful she did not stay quiet because it opened him up to God’s purpose for his life.
The details of everything that transpired are out in the open now, and Morris never paid the $2 million she requested on the phone call.
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