Four days after learning of decades-old child sex abuse allegations against their senior pastor Robert Morris, hundreds of Gateway Church staff gathered in an auditorium in Southlake, Texas on Tuesday to learn about his fate.
Some employees appeared serious as they squirmed in their seats. Others looked angry. One attendee pulled out his cellphone and surreptitiously pressed the record button. Later, he shared the audio with NBC News and spoke about the meeting in an interview. Another person who was present confirmed his statement and the authenticity of the recording.
Kenneth W. Fambro II, a real estate executive who serves on Gateway's board of elders, fought back tears as he told employees the news: Morris, one of the nation's most prominent evangelical leaders, was resigning from the church he founded 24 years ago.
In accepting Morris's resignation, Fambro said, “This has been the most difficult decision of my life.”
A recording of Fambro’s remarks reveals the deeply conflicted emotions of church leaders after they learned that their founding pastor — the man who built Gateway into one of America’s largest megachurches and served on former President Donald Trump’s spiritual advisory board — had confessed to engaging in “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a child.
Fambro began his talk Tuesday by acknowledging that he and other church officials had long known that Morris had admitted to sexual misconduct when he was young. It was a story that Morris had told so often from the pulpit and in one-on-one meetings over the years that “you can get numb to it,” Fambro said, according to the recording.
“Pastor Robert has done a phenomenal job of being open and transparent about his crimes, his past, his moral failings,” Fambro, speaking on behalf of the elders board responsible for governing the church, said.
“We had no idea she was 12.”
Cindy Clemishier, the woman who accused Morris of molesting her as a child, rejected the notion that Morris was being transparent. In a statement to NBC News, she said she was upset that Gateway superiors were struggling over whether to remove him from leadership.
“What’s so hard about accepting the resignation of a man who repeatedly sexually abused a little girl for almost five years and then lied about it?” Klemisher said after reviewing a transcript of the recording provided by NBC News. “Why wasn’t he fired?”
Clemishier and her attorney, Boz Tchividjian, say they approached Morris and church officials with their allegations in 2005 and 2007 and that Gateway's board of elders should have investigated Morris's statements much earlier. (According to Gateway's website, Fambro began attending the church in 2006 and became an elder in 2014.)
Morris has not been charged with any criminal offence and did not respond to messages seeking comment.
The allegations were made public Friday in a post published by The Wartburg Watch, a website focused on exposing abuse in churches. Clemisher, 54, described in the post and later in an interview with NBC News how Morris sexually abused her over several years, beginning on Christmas Eve in 1982, when she was 12.
Initially, Morris and Gateway elders acknowledged in statements Friday and Saturday that Morris had had sex multiple times with a “young lady” in his 20s and said he had been transparent about his sin and repented.
In a message to employees Friday, superiors said, “No other ethical failures have occurred since the resolution of this 35-year-old matter.”
But some Gateway parishioners and staff members saw the statement as a moral failure. Why did church leaders describe the alleged sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl in euphemistic terms?
Fambro did not answer the question in his remarks Tuesday, and he and other church elders did not respond to messages seeking comment. A Gateway spokesman also did not respond.
The person who recorded Tuesday's staff meeting said she shared it with a reporter because she believes the Board of Alders is “gaslighting” staff about its initial defense of Morris and that needs to change. NBC News is not naming the woman because she fears retaliation.
At the meeting, Fambro defended the board of elders, which he said has faced criticism from members who believe leaders took too long to respond to the crisis.
He said leaders had deliberated during several hours of meetings on Monday and Tuesday and were following guidance from their former senior pastor.
“If you’ve been here long enough, you’ve heard Pastor Robert say, ‘Before we move forward, we need to hear the voice of God,’” Fambro said.
Fambro also told staff that he and other superiors “have a lot of compassion” for Clemishire and don’t think what happened to her was justified.
“You won't hear us trying to explain it,” Fambro said.
But, he added, that doesn’t mean “we don’t love Pastor Robert, we’re not defending him.”
He then spoke at length about the profound impact Morris had on his life and the lives of thousands of church members. Fambro encouraged the audience that the child sex abuse revelations should not cause them to overlook the good that God has done – and continues to do – through Gateway and Morris.
“So yes, there's an anointing on this house. Yes, there's an anointing on Pastor Robert,” Fambro said. “But both/and, yes? There were some things that were done. They can both be present.”
Fambro asked staff to pray for Morris’ family, including his son, James Morris, who is associate senior pastor and is set to succeed his father upon his planned retirement next year.
Fambro said Robert Morris is still pursuing Gateway, which is why he is stepping down.
“Pastor Robert wants to see Gateway Church succeed in the body of Christ,” Fambro said. “Pastor Robert wanted to resign to avoid distraction.”
Clemishire said the elders' continued support for Morris “makes me sick.”
“How can any church believe a man can be anointed by God after sexually abusing a child and then lying about it for decades?” he said. “It’s disgusting.”
Although the elders had asked attendees not to record Tuesday’s meeting, Fambro felt his words could eventually reach a wider audience. He said he worried someone could take a “soundbite, a clip, part of a sentence” and twist its meaning.
In closing, before another church leader came forward to describe counseling services available to employees, Fambro encouraged listeners to focus on what they can do to help the church succeed.
“I can reflect on the past,” he said. “You guys can do that too. Or I can say: 'This is a data point. How can I influence the future?'”
“How do we move forward?” Fambro said.