A Texas megachurch is facing financial ruin, with mass layoffs looming, as donations plummet one year after it emerged that its pastor, a former spiritual advisor to President Donald Trump, sexually abused a young girl for years.
Gateway Church in Dallas says donations, or tithing, have dropped significantly since the scandal involving its former pastor, Robert Morris, who stepped down last June, Fox 4 reported.
Amy Smith, who runs watchkeep.org, told Fox the church, which is one of the largest American megachurches, has long been facing financial troubles.
“Every few months there have been some announcements regarding financial issues,” Smith said. “They can’t go on with business as usual.”
Turmoil at the church comes after a grand jury in March indicted Morris on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child. Morris, who founded Gateway Church 25 years ago, is currently out on bond while awaiting trial.
The alleged abuse began in 1982 when Cindy Clemishire was 12 years old and Morris was a traveling evangelist staying in Hominy, Oklahoma, with her family.
Clemishire, who says the abuse spanned years, filed a lawsuit earlier this month against Morris, seeking at least $1 million for slander, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress in the years following his abuse.
Morris acknowledged he had been “sexually immoral” when he was younger during a 2014 sermon, but in the past year has continued to claim his abuse of Clemishire was an “extramarital affair.”
The former pastor was named to the first Trump presidential campaign’s spiritual advisory board in 2016.
The president said of the appointment at the time, “I have such tremendous respect and admiration for this group and I look forward to continuing to talk about the issues important to Evangelicals, and all Americans, and the common sense solutions I will implement when I am President.”
In 2020, Gateway Church hosted Trump for a discussion on race relations and the economy, during which Trump called Morris a “great” person with a “great reputation,” NBC News reported.
In the wake of the scandal, Gateway told members in a recent letter, “Over the last year, tithing has not mirrored attendance, given the ongoing issues related to the church’s former pastor, and that has led to a significant drop in giving levels.”
Gateway did not specify how many people would lose their jobs, but said it’s “strategizing the best way to continue intentionally moving forward and building a sustainable foundation for Gateway’s next season of ministry.”
Next month, Gateway church and Morris will face off in an arbitration court hearing. The church claims its former pastor is trying to make them pay him millions of dollars in deferred compensation, retirement benefits and severance.
The church, however, claims Morris’ criminal charges equate to a breach of contract.
