Megachurch Abuse and Accountability

Robert Morris, founder of Gateway Church and a former spiritual adviser to Donald Trump, was released just after midnight from the Pawhuska, Oklahoma, jail after serving six months of a 10-year sentence following a plea to five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child in the 1980s; the deal includes lifetime sex‑offender registration, $250,000 in restitution and nearly ten years of probation remaining. He issued a written apology to victim Cindy Clemishire, whose lawyer Rep. Jeff Leach said he will pursue civil claims against those who allegedly covered for or attacked her, and Oklahoma’s House last month passed the "Cindy Clemishire Act" to ban NDAs in child-sex-abuse settlements, now pending in the state Senate.