Former Gateway Church pastor of young adults, Stephen LeBlanc, recently told local WFAA that he felt “betrayed” by the church’s founder, Robert Morris, for concealing his alleged sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl in the 1980s.
Morris resigned as Gateway Church’s senior pastor last month (June 18) after allegations came to light that he had abused Cindy Clemishire when she was 12 and he was in his early 20s.
Now the senior pastor of Sherman Bible Church in Sherman, Texas, LeBlanc was hired as a pastor at Gateway Church in 2011 and served at the church for nearly three years before leaving on good terms due to disagreement involving doctrine. LeBlanc has known Morris since the late 1980s.
LeBlanc said that after hearing the news of Morris’ alleged child sex abuse, he “was very surprised. I was stunned.”
During his time at Gateway Church, LeBlanc preached from behind the same pulpit as Morris and was aware that Morris was previously involved in what Morris described as “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady.”
However, LeBlanc finds it highly unlikely that other leaders didn’t know about Clemishire’s age. He went as far as to say he believes that a cover-up took place “early on.”
“It is highly likely that other people saw those emails…that just seems highly unlikely that no one else knew that,” LeBlanc said. He nevertheless added, “I can’t say that for a fact.”
LeBlanc doesn’t believe that Gateway Church has taken responsibility for what Morris did and is calling on the church to do more, starting with releasing any recordings the church might have of elder meetings where Clemishire might have been discussed.
