Hours after his release from the Osage County Jail in Oklahoma on Tuesday, following his completion of a six-month sentence for sexually abusing Cindy Clemishire for multiple years beginning when she was 12 in the 1980s, Gateway Church founder Robert Morris publicly asked for her forgiveness and reflected on the time he spent behind bars.
In a statement shared with The Christian Post by his attorney, William B. Mateja, the Southlake, Texas, megachurch founder revealed that his time spent in jail helped him realize even more how wrong he was for abusing Clemishire.
“I want to speak directly to Cindy Clemishire and her family. What I did to Cindy decades ago was wrong. There is no other word for it, and there is no excuse for it. I am deeply sorry. I have carried the weight of that wrong for a very long time, and I am grateful — genuinely grateful — that the Clemishires had the courage to bring this into the light,” Morris said in his statement.
“It is only in the light that things can truly be addressed and healed. Many years ago, I sought their forgiveness privately, and as Cindy’s father recently noted, he extended that grace to me — a grace I did not deserve and have never taken for granted. I ask again, publicly, and sincerely, for the forgiveness of Cindy and her entire family. Whatever healing lies ahead for them, I pray for it with all my heart.”
Responding to Morris’ statement Tuesday, Clemishire told CP that she forgave Morris a long time ago and hopes his remorse following his time in jail is genuine.
“I forgave Robert Morris many years ago, and forgiveness is something I continue to walk out — sometimes daily, as needed. Forgiveness, however, does not erase the truth of what happened or the lifelong impact it has had on me,” she said in a written statement.
“His words today are, in many ways, what any victim would hope to hear. But it is still deeply disheartening that those words were not spoken directly to me and my family on October 2nd, when he stood before the court and pleaded guilty. That moment mattered,” she continued.
“While I hope his statement reflects genuine remorse, I cannot know whether those words came from his heart or were carefully prepared for him. What I do know is this: what happened to me on December 25, 1982, when I was 12 years old, was not a relationship — it was a crime. And it changed the course of my life forever.”
Morris was indicted in March 2025 on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child by a multi-county grand jury in Oklahoma in connection with his actions against the now 55-year-old Clemishire, who reported that Morris began sexually abusing her on Dec. 25, 1982, when she was 12, and continued with the abuse for four-and-a-half years after that. At the time, Morris was a traveling evangelist.
He pleaded guilty last October to accept responsibility, according to his attorney Bill Mateja.
"He simply accepted responsibility for his crime from the mid-1980s and pled guilty. He pled guilty because he wanted to accept responsibility for his conduct. While he believes that he long since accepted responsibility in the eyes of God — and that Gateway Church was a manifestation of that acceptance — he readily accepted responsibility in the eyes of the law by virtue of his guilty plea," Mateja told CP in an earlier statement after Morris was sentenced.
Morris, who was also ordered to pay $270,000 in restitution, still faces an ongoing defamation lawsuit from Clemishire along with Gateway Church.
In her defamation lawsuit, which has been halted pending a mandamus review, Clemishire and her father, Jerry Lee Clemishire, are seeking more than $1 million in damages, alleging that Morris and Gateway Church leaders publicly mischaracterized the abuse she suffered as a consensual "relationship" with a "young lady" instead of the sexual assault of a child after the abuse was made public in 2024.
The petition for mandamus review was filed on Nov. 14 by attorneys for Gateway Church and their independent elders John D. "Tra" Willbanks, Kenneth W. Fambro II and Dane Minor. It came after Dallas County District Court Judge Emily Tobolowsky rejected a motion from the church and elders to dismiss the Clemishires' lawsuit, citing the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine, which holds that courts lack jurisdiction over matters of religion.
In her statement to CP Tuesday, Clemishire insisted that Morris and Gateway Church profited from the mischaracterization of her abuse.
“For decades, a false narrative was allowed to exist — one that minimized the truth and helped build a platform and following, while my life was left in pieces. That reality cannot be overlooked,” she said.
“My healing journey is ongoing and will be for the rest of my life. But today is not just about me — it is about truth being acknowledged, and about accountability finally taking place.”
She thanked Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, District Attorney Gayland Gieger, and lead investigator Kylie Turner for helping to bring Morris to justice.
“Their commitment ensured that what was hidden for so long was finally brought into the light,” she said. My hope moving forward is that this case helps create space for other survivors to be heard, believed and protected — and that the truth is never again rewritten at the expense of a victim’s life.”
In addition to seeking Clemishire’s forgiveness, the Texas megachurch founder also apologized to the Body of Christ for the “damage” he caused.
“I am sorry for the pain, the confusion and the damage that has come upon so many believers because of my actions. That is a weight I carry, and it is right that I carry it,” Morris wrote.
“I have thought a great deal about what it means that this was brought to a legal resolution. At first, that was a hard thing to handle. But the more time I spent in that jail cell, the more clearly I could see that what the Clemishire family set in motion was an act of integrity, and that it gave me something I needed — a moment of true reckoning in the eyes of the law, not just in my own heart or before God,” Morris continued. “It opened my eyes to things I had not fully seen.”
Morris also expressed thanks to the Osage County Jail staff for treating him with “professionalism, fairness, and genuine decency, as they did for all inmates.”
He also expressed thanks to his support system, including his wife, Debbie.
“As I look ahead, I do not have a grand announcement to make about what comes next. What I have is gratitude — for Debbie, for my family, for those who loved me when I was hardest to love, and for the mercy that I do not deserve but have been given,” he noted.
“I intend to live quietly and with integrity, and to be the kind of husband, father, grandfather, and man who reflects that mercy in how he treats others. Scripture has always been my anchor, and it remains so now. The apostle Paul wrote in Galatians, ‘Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows,’” he added.
“That verse has been with me through these months. The harvest from seeds I sowed long ago in sin was real, and it was just. But I believe equally in what follows — that when we turn, and when we sow differently, a different harvest is possible. That is not wishful thinking. That is the promise of grace. I am counting on it, and I am committed to living up to it.”
