A name came across my social media that certainly caught my attention: Robert Morris.
My mother’s maiden name is Morris and one of her cousins is Rob Morris. He played linebacker for the Indianapolis Colts. He even won a Super Bowl ring.
But not that Robert Morris. This one is the Robert Morris who founded the Gateway megachurch in Texas. The Robert Morris who was counted as Donald Trump’s spiritual advisor. He’s just pleaded guilty to the sexual abuse of a 12-year-old starting in 1982. Morris was a traveling preacher then, living with a family in Oklahoma, where he continued abusing the daughter for the next four years.
For admitting he raped a girl from age 12 to age 16, Morris will be required to register as a sex offender, pay $270,000 in restitution, and serve six months in the county jail. That’s right: four years of pedophilic rape gets you six month jail in Texas; though Morris was sentenced to ten years in prison, the judge suspended nine-and-a-half years of that, when he’ll be serving probation.
I wonder if the media will ever get around to asking Donald Trump about his former spiritual advisor’s “wonderful secrets?”
While the Morris case is astonishing, even more shocking is just how much pedophilia is going on in Texas megachurches in just the past year.
- Sep ’25: Jon Paul Sheptock, worship minister at First Montgomery Baptist Church in Montgomery, busted for possession and production of child sexual abuse material.
- Aug ’25: Luke Cunningham, youth pastor at Turning Point Community Church in Lubbock, sixteen counts of sexual assault of a child.
- Jan ’25: Jerry Nickerson, student pastor at Hope Fellowship Church in Frisco, for “inappropriate contact with a minor.”
- Dec ’24: Aturo Alarcon, associate minister at 121 Community Church in Grapevine, possession of child sexual abuse material and invasive visual recording.
- Sep ’24: Craig Stone, youth director at Willowwood Church of the Nazarene in Denton, for indecency with a child and possession of child sexual abuse material.
- Sep ’24: Marvin Scales, youth pastor at an unnamed Ellis County church, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual abuse of a young child, one count of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of sexual assault of a child. He was caught when it was discovered he impregnated a 14-year-old girl.
The Marvin Scales case is especially egregious. From the news reports:
Scales would regularly take the congregation’s children on overnight trips, and he would have the children sleep over at this house, according to the DA. Victims told investigators Scales would have sex with them on the trips and overnight stays.
The DA’s office said Scales had an extensive security system installed at his home that captured several of the sexual assaults. They said he even recorded several of the assaults himself and kept them at home.
Scales is already a registered sex offender from a conviction in 1998 — and Montgomery said the church could’ve learned of his past with a simple background check.
Ellis County District Clerk’s Criminal Records show that he has 13 sex-related offenses listed including possession of child pornography and aggravated sexual assault of a child.
Then there are the men of the cloth who are sex pests with adult women in their flock.
- Aug ’25: Josiah Anthony, pastor at Cross Timbers Church in Argyle, “communicating inappropriately with women” using text messages and social media posts that “were sexual in nature.”
- Oct ’24: David Scarberry, evangelistic outreach leader at Revival City Church in McKinney, arrested on a complaint of continuous violence against the family. Scarberry was previously convicted of possession of a controlled substance, using an offensive weapon in a felony, and distribution of a controlled substance/possession with intent to distribute.
- Sep ’24: Scott Crenshaw, senior pastor at Lake County Church in Saginaw, for “looking at inappropriate material,” something he was fired for at New River Fellowship Church in 2016.
- Aug ’25: Kemtal Glasgow, executive pastor at Gateway Church in Southlake, for a “moral issue.”
- Sep ’24: Steven J. Lawson, lead pastor at Trinity Bible Church in Dallas, for an inappropriate relationship that he has had with a woman.”
- Aug ’24: Byron Copeland, executive pastor at Cross Timbers Church in Argyle, for “inappropriate communication” with a female.
- Jul ’24: Ronald Goines, pastor of an unnamed church in Arlington, for indecent assault and another for sexual assault.
- Jul ’24: Terren Dames, senior pastor at North Dallas Community Bible Fellowship in Plano, soliciting prostitution.
- Jul ’24: Tony Cammarota, associate pastor at Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, for a “moral failure.”
Seven Texas church pastors in just the past year have been busted for sex crimes concerning children, nine more in the past eighteen months who’ve got their issues with pestering, abusing, and disrespecting women.
Have these guys been preaching from the Trump Bible?
