Cindy Clemishire has filed a defamation lawsuit against Gateway Church and its founder, Robert Morris, claiming they mischaracterized years of sexual abuse she experienced as a child.

According to the Christian Post, the lawsuit seeks over $1 million in damages and follows criminal charges filed earlier in the year against Morris related to the alleged abuse, which Clemishire says began when she was 12.

The complaint, submitted to Tarrant County District Court in early June 2025, also names Clemishire’s father, Jerry Lee Clemishire, as a co-plaintiff. Clemishire, now 55, accuses Morris and Gateway Church of describing what she experienced as a “consensual relationship” rather than sexual abuse of a minor.

The accusations stem from incidents that allegedly began on December 25, 1982, when Clemishire was a preteen. At the time, Morris was a traveling evangelist and not yet the leader of what would become one of the nation's largest churches. He went on to found Gateway Church in 2000.

The legal complaint follows a March 2024 indictment against Morris by a multi-county grand jury in Oklahoma. He was charged with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child, all related to the alleged abuse of Clemishire over a four-and-a-half-year period in the 1980s.

Concerns Over Church’s Response to Past Allegations

Controversy intensified in late 2024, when Gateway Church conducted an internal investigation into how church leaders had handled past allegations involving Morris. The church ultimately removed several elders that November, stating that only three were unaware of the abuse allegations.

Tra Willbanks, one of Gateway’s current elders, told the media that some former leaders and employees had knowledge before June 14, 2024, that Clemishire was 12 years old when the abuse began. “Both groups are fundamentally wrong and simply cannot and will not be tolerated at Gateway Church,” he said.

Morris resigned from his leadership role at Gateway Church in June 2024. A year later, in court documents filed as part of the defamation suit, Morris stated that Gateway leaders had known about his “highly inappropriate relationship” with Clemishire for more than 10 years.

Details Emerge From a Once-Private Statement

A key part of the new filings centers around a statement Morris wrote in 2011, in response to an anonymous email sent to church leadership and media outlets. Though never read publicly, the statement acknowledged that Morris had kissed and touched a girl who was “about two weeks” away from turning 13 at the time of the encounter.

“I was staying in a home of one of the members of the church where I was speaking,” Morris wrote of the early 1980s events. “Their daughter came and got in bed with me and there was kissing and petting.”

In another portion of the same statement, Morris wrote that while he was aware she was underage, he thought she looked older. “My behavior was completely inexcusable and I am 100% at fault,” he stated in the document that was not made public at the time.

Church Deflects Blame, Removes Former Leaders

Gateway Church has distanced itself from Morris’s legal filings, stating that the new documents offer no fresh information and serve only to shift blame. A church spokesperson told The Christian Post the filing is “just the latest sad attempt by Robert Morris to deflect blame away from himself to others for his criminal actions.”

The church said any elder or employee who failed to address or escalate concerns about the abuse is no longer affiliated with Gateway. “We have consistently and publicly said that there were Elders and employees at Gateway who knew about this issue before it became public, and either didn’t take action or didn’t inquire further,” the spokesperson added.

When asked for comment on Clemishire’s defamation suit, Gateway Church declined to respond publicly. However, they defended their current leadership and stressed that the previous failings have been addressed through internal restructuring.

Legal Action Seeks to Redefine Public Narrative

The lawsuit focuses not only on the decades-old abuse but also on how Morris and Gateway Church allegedly misrepresented the events. Clemishire’s legal team argues that calling the abuse a “relationship” in any form publicly distorts the nature of what occurred and further harms the survivor.

The church spokesperson reinforced this view in their public remarks, saying Morris’s continued description of his conduct as an “inappropriate relationship” is part of a broader pattern of avoidance and denial. “There seems to be nothing that Robert won’t say or do to blame everyone else but himself,” the spokesperson said.

Clemishire's case now moves forward in the Texas court system, with both sides expected to provide testimony and further documentation in the coming months. No trial date has yet been set, and representatives for Morris have not released any additional public statements beyond the court filings.