The gavel has fallen in an Oklahoma courtroom, and the sound it made was not one of justice, but of a system failing at its most fundamental duty: to protect the innocent and punish the wicked. Robert Preston Morris, the founder of the Gateway megachurch, has been handed a sentence so lenient, so insultingly inadequate, that it borders on complicity. For the systematic sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl, a crime that shattered a childhood and spanned four long years, this man will serve a mere six months in a county jail.
Let us be unequivocally clear: this is not justice. It is a grotesque parody of it.
BREAKING: Trump’s spiritual advisor Pastor Robert Morris, pleaded guilty to 5 felony counts of sexually assaulting a 12 year old girl. He molested this girl for 5 years. Get this. He's only going to have to serve 6 months in jail. Why are these MAGA men always let off the hook… pic.twitter.com/tRIZNJiUcG
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) October 3, 2025
The facts of the case are stomach-churning. Morris, then a travelling evangelist, was a guest in the family home of his victim, Cindy Clemishire. He exploited that position of sacred trust, that of a man of God, to “manipulate, groom and abuse” a child. This was not a momentary lapse in judgement; it was a calculated, predatory campaign that continued from the time she was 12 until she was 16. The power dynamic alone is monstrous—a grown man, a spiritual leader, preying on the innocence of a child in the very place she should have been safest.
And what is the price for this devastation? Six months.
One hundred and eighty days. A sentence shorter than the time it takes to complete an apprenticeship, a sentence often handed down for non-violent property crimes. It is a sentence that communicates a horrifying message: the childhood of a girl is worth less than half a year of a powerful man’s freedom.
The plea bargain, with its 10-year suspended sentence, is a legal fiction designed to create the illusion of severity. It is a paper tiger. The reality is that Morris, at 64, is highly unlikely to ever see the inside of a prison cell beyond this derisory half-year stint. The system has effectively allowed him to trade a lifetime of accountability for a few months of mild inconvenience.
His lawyer’s statement, that Morris “readily accepted responsibility in the eyes of the law,” is nauseating in its disingenuousness. This “acceptance of responsibility” came only after he was indicted by a grand jury, decades after the fact, and only after he had previously minimised his actions to “kissing and petting.” This is not repentance; it is damage limitation. It is the strategic move of a man caught in the unforgiving light of public scrutiny, not one genuinely confronting the horror of his crimes.
The true weight of this crime is carried not in the Osage County Jail, but in the life of Cindy Clemishire. She has lived with the trauma for over four decades. Her courage in coming forward publicly has finally forced a sliver of accountability, yet the sentence offered in return makes a mockery of her suffering. Her hope that this will empower other victims is profoundly admirable, but one must ask: what encouragement does this verdict give? That after years of struggle, their abuser might get a sentence that amounts to a long holiday?
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is correct in his assessment that the case is “despicable.” But strong words from a prosecutor ring hollow when the outcome is so weak. There can be no tolerance for those who prey on children, he says. Yet the court has tolerated it, sentencing Morris to a term that is little more than a stern telling-off.
This case lays bare a disturbing hierarchy of justice. It seems that wealth, influence, and a position of religious authority can still buy a significant discount on the price of accountability. Robert Morris built an empire, advised presidents, and led thousands. But beneath the veneer of piety was a predator, and the law, in its ultimate judgement, has treated his crimes with a shocking degree of leniency.
Six months for a stolen childhood. It is an arithmetic of injustice, and a devastating betrayal for every survivor of abuse who looks to the courts for protection and vindication.
