After Robert Morris scandal, former Gateway Church staffer is done with organized religion
After working with the embattled Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, for several years, one former employee and most of her family cannot picture themselves worshiping at a megachurch or being involved in any kind of organized religion again.
“No,” Jana Scott (whose name has been changed to protect her identity) bluntly told The Christian Post in a recent interview when asked if she would ever again worship at a megachurch.
“In fact, I'll be honest with you, there's no one in my family ... that attends church anymore of any kind. It has destroyed our family.”
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As the fallout from Gateway Church founder Robert Morris’ June 18 resignation continues after 54-year-old Cindy Clemishire reported that he began sexually abusing her on Dec. 25, 1982, when she was just 12, and continued with the abuse for four-and-a-half years after that, Scott said things began falling apart at the church long before that. The trail of shattered lives left behind in the wake of Morris’ fall runs much deeper than the wounds Clemishire still carries.
Though Morris insists that he “repented” of his alleged crime and was forgiven by Clemishire’s family, Scott doesn’t believe the megachurch founder ever truly repented.
“No, never, absolutely not, because he was still lying and giving his narrative of the story all the way to the bitter end. It was horrible,” Scott said.
Without naming Clemishire, Morris admitted to CP in an earlier statement that he had engaged in “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady” while he was a pastor in his early 20s.
“When I was in my early twenties, I was involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying. It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong. This behavior happened on several occasions over the next few years,” Morris said.
“In March of 1987, this situation was brought to light, and it was confessed and repented of. I submitted myself to the Elders of Shady Grove Church and the young lady’s father. They asked me to step out of ministry and receive counseling and freedom ministry, which I did. Since that time, I have walked in purity and accountability in this area,” Morris added.
Elders at Gateway Church also initially told CP that Morris was transparent with them about his past and they believed he had been biblically restored to ministry. In their statement announcing his resignation on June 18, however, the elders said Morris did not reveal that he had abused a 12-year-old girl.
“Regretfully, prior to Friday, June 14, the elders did not have all the facts of the inappropriate relationship between Morris and the victim, including her age at the time and the length of the abuse. The elders’ prior understanding was that Morris’s extramarital relationship, which he had discussed many times throughout his ministry, was with ‘a young lady’ and not abuse of a 12-year-old child,” the elders explained.
Gateway Church has since authorized an independent investigation into the allegations against Morris and who at the church knew of the child abuse allegations.
In the meantime Scott is praying for Morris to be prosecuted as Clemishire contends that the church knew of Morris’ crime.
“My prayer is that they will definitely roll back the statute of limitations and someday he'll be held accountable. Absolutely I think he should be in jail. I think he should have to pay her tons of money,” Scott told CP.
She explained that for a while, she believed Morris was sincere in his ministry as she worked at the church, but “as time went by and the larger we got, it seemed very apparent that he was about making a name for himself and about amassing wealth.”
After learning of Clemishire’s allegations, Scott doesn’t believe Morris was ever sincerely serving God.
“You just look back and go, you know, like I've watched so many sermons from the past now — clips and things that people post on social media — and you go, ‘Oh, my God, I heard that sermon. Why did I not get up and walk out [of the church]. He was telling us who he was. ... And you're like, 'How was I so blind? How did I not see it? How did I not hear it? How did I justify this?'” she said.
It wasn’t until she finally left the church, says Scott, that she began to see things clearly.
“Even before this came out, all of the different things that went on at Gateway, the different kinds of spiritual abuse and everything that everyone endured. Once you get any distance from it, you step out from it a little bit, your eyes begin to be opened and you're like, ‘Oh my God; oh my God,’” she said.
Scott said she had to repent to some of her younger family members for forcing some of the spiritual abuse on them that she herself didn't see at the time.
“It’s a business,” she said of Gateway Church. “We had to grapple with it for years. We were like, this is changing. It's not a ministry; it's a corporation, it's a business. We have a job. We don't have a ministry; we have a job and a career. And it was disgusting.”
When asked if she believed a smaller church could be a solution to the abuse she experienced at Gateway Church, Scott said she didn’t see downsizing as a solution.
“I went to a small church before I came to Gateway, and that small church, I was spiritually abused there, and found out later on that that pastor had molested someone. And you know he was living a double life,” Scott said.
“I know so many people who have traumas and things from being a part of that small church. So I don't know, I don't know what the answer is. We've tried different things at home, trying to just have family time where we worship together and things like that.”
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