Robert Morris indicted on child sex abuse charges: Clergy abuse scandals and a prophetic moment I have not forgotten
The Daily Article
The Denison Forum
4.9 • 576 Ratings
🗓️ 14 March 2025
⏱️ 8 minutes
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Summary
Rev. Robert Morris of Gateway Church has now been indicted on child sex abuse charges in Oklahoma. The former pastor is charged with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child. Biblical morality has become more problematic than ever before in American history, and sex abuse scandals are especially to blame. According to our Lord, you can be “salt [that] has lost its taste” and is “thrown out and trampled,” or you can “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:13, 16).
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's Friday, March the 14th, 2025, and this is Denison Forum's Daily Article Podcast. |
| 0:09.7 | I'm Chris Elkins, narrating today's daily article written by our co-founder and CEO, Dr. Jim Denison. |
| 0:18.2 | Reverend Robert Morris founded Gateway Church in April 2000 at the Hilton Hotel in Grapevine, Texas, |
| 0:25.8 | a suburb of Dallas. Ten years later, the church opened its current 64-acre facility. In November |
| 0:32.3 | 2018, it was ranked the fourth largest megachurch in the U.S. with about 28,000 weekly attendees. |
| 0:41.4 | While I do not know Robert Morris personally, I have known many who have benefited greatly |
| 0:45.8 | from Gateway's ministries over the years. It was deeply grievous to learn of horrific abuse |
| 0:51.6 | allegations against Morris last June, prompting his resignation. |
| 0:55.8 | This week, news broke that Morris has now been indicted on child sex abuse charges in Oklahoma. |
| 1:02.8 | The former pastor is charged with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child. |
| 1:07.8 | The Oklahoma Attorney General told the Dallas Morning News yesterday that |
| 1:12.3 | Morris will, more likely than not, turn himself in and be arraigned by Monday. |
| 1:18.1 | Earlier in the week, the Dallas Morning News published an extensive article interviewing |
| 1:23.3 | ex-Gaithway employees who said the church had, quote, a culture of silence and trauma. |
| 1:29.4 | They said that before Morris's exit, the church had a narcissistic culture where criticism was |
| 1:36.1 | silenced and staffers were left with lasting trauma. According to the elder board chair, |
| 1:41.5 | the church is now reckoning with a, quote, failure of culture. |
| 1:45.2 | Ruth Graham recently profiled evangelical author Aaron Wren in the New York Times. |
| 1:51.0 | Wren is especially known for his historical taxonomy that has become conventional wisdom for many, |
| 1:57.6 | including American Christians, experienced a positive world between 1964 and |
| 2:03.6 | 1994, during which being a Christian generally enhanced our social status and Christian's social |
| 2:11.0 | norms were the basic norms of the broader American culture. Next, in the neutral world, |
... |
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