‘Daughters of Stan’ at It Again

Helping bring light to the Robert Morris abuse allegations

If you read Disobedient Women or are part of the community fighting abuse in spiritual environments, you probably know Dee Parsons of watchdog blog Wartburg Watch. 

If you require reminder: Dee is a “church lady”-turned-advocate (and still churchgoing woman) who has been using the internet to discuss, help survivors disclose, and battle abuse for over a decade and a half. She doesn’t earn a dime from her labor, which she treats as a ministry. Once, an online critic of this work tried to insult Dee and other advocates including Amy Smith. He called them “Daughters of Stan.” He evidently didn’t use spell check.

They adopted the moniker, giving a quirky edge to mothers on a mission to protect the abused.

Last Friday, Dee posted a story that has now been linked across dozens of national news publications (CNN, NBC, CBS, The New York Times, Washington Post, etc.). Dee broke with the allegations of Cindy Clemishire, a woman who claimed she had been sexually molested by Robert Morris, who happened to be senior pastor at one of the largest megachurches in the country. Dee described with sensitivity and her trademark straightforward way how Cindy Clemishire was molested by Morris, then a twenty-something family friend, starting when she was twelve years old and wearing her pink pajamas and snap-up robe. The abuse, Clemishire, said, went on for four and a half years, until she told a friend, who insisted Clemishire tell her parents.

Clemishire’s father, who had even been donating to Morris’s ministry before he knew about the abuse, insisted Morris step down from ministry or he would turn him in to the sheriff.

Gateway Church would later defend that Morris did step away for two years for a “restoration process.”

It took much longer, as is typical and understandable, for Clemishire to fully grasp what happened to her. Part of the reason for her difficulty was how the abuse was framed. After Morris was “restored,” his wife told Clemishire she forgave her. This warped years of child sexual abuse into something like an “affair”—a tactic that I have seen over and again in churches that treat abuse of tween and teenage girls as some sort of moral ‘slip up’ on the part of a pastor drawn in by a young temptress. Not a child—as she was.  

You may have seen how quickly the church responded with a defense of Morris in a church statement saying Morris had been open and forthright about his “moral failing” 35 years prior. In Morris’s part of the statement he claimed that when he was in his twenties he was involved in inappropriate “sexual behavior with a young lady” that involved “kissing and petting, but not intercourse.”

It was a minimization, but also a confession.

Within days, Morris would resign from Gateway Church. Daystar Television, which broadcast Morris’s programming, began removing all of the pastor’s past shows.

It may seem quick and decisive, especially compared to how long it takes for most sexual abuse survivors to achieve justice, if they ever do.

But for Clemishire, it’s been decades.

According to what Dee Parsons reported, Clemishire first grasped the reality of her abuse while watching Oprah when she was 35. A man on the show described grooming and Clemishire began to see her own history in a different light—one that was not her fault.

In 2005, she wrote to Robert Morris at Gateway about what she says he did to her. Instead, an elder named Tom Lane wrote back, acknowledging her abuse and that she was 12 years old when it occurred. Morris remained in his position.

Clemishire, who by 2007 had invested considerable resources into therapy, sought legal recourse to cover those costs. Clemishire’s attorney sent a letter to Morris requesting funds to cover the thousands she’d spent in therapy. Morris’s attorney, Clemishire recalls, behaved as if she’d been flirtatious (so, again, at fault) and offered half of what she asked for, so long as she agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Clemishire did not sign the NDA.

So at this point, she had written responses from one of Morris’s elders acknowledging her abuse and the same from Morris’s attorney, all while Morris’s ministerial empire grew. Clemishire did not keep quiet about what happened. But the truth never seemed to impact Morris, who not only led Gateway Church (with its congregation of 100,000), but he had a TV show and growing political clout.

In May, Clemishire confided in a friend, Wade Burlson over dinner. As Dee recounts, “Wade Burleson called me and he said, ‘I have this story about abuse that really needs to be told.’” He explained how he knew Clemishire and how upset she was because it felt like she’d been “talking to people about this for her whole life,” and nothing was ever done. Wade had  told Clemishire, “I know that you’re tired,” but there was one other possibility: “Let my friend Dee write your story.”

As ever, Dee had no idea how much attention the story would garner and was “flabbergasted” (in a positive way) by how quickly it was picked up by other sources.

Amy Smith for her part has been all over TikTok promoting Clemishire’s story. Gateway Church even called the police on Smith for filming outside.

After the church made its statement, which played up the idea that Morris took time off from the ministry as part of his “restoration,” Parson’s initial post required an update. Clemishire found in Morris’s book From Dream to Destiny (2011) that Morris himself had described that time stepping away from the ministry as necessary to deal with pride he’d developed during his fast ascent. His withdrawal from ministry, in this telling, became a morality play about learning humility with God’s grace while working as a Motel 6 security guard, rather than a man accused of child molestation getting the hell away from the church after being told off by her father.

Cue CBS, CNN and a slew of other news sources, which leapt on the story, in part due to Morris’s influence (he’d been counted as a spiritual adviser to Donald Trump). In turn, Dee canceled her usual Sunday EChurch. There was too much going on.

Todd Wilhelm, who helps Dee with Wartburg Watch, noticed that Albert Tate, a pastor from Los Angeles, had pulled out from speaking at Gateway Church Sunday at the last moment and was replaced by a staffer.  

By Tuesday, the church issued a new statement: Gateway had accepted Morris’s resignation. They claimed the church had not had “all the facts,” including the length of the abuse or Clemishire’s age at the time. (This had all been in her initial story to which Gateway had responded in its first statement, and Clemishire had informed a church elder years prior.)

Wednesday, Wartburg Watch posted Cindy Clemishire’s statement. Clemishire said she was disappointed the church accepted Morris’s resignation—he ought to have been terminated.

She is heartbroken for those who followed and trusted Morris.

“This is just the beginning. I wholeheartedly and sadly believe I am not the only victim. I encourage anyone who has been sexually victimized by a leader at Gateway Church to take the bold step forward and say something,” Clemishire wrote. 

Money is weird, but this weird?

We know a few things now. Robert Morris confessed, at least to some degree, that he did in fact kiss and touch a “young lady”—Clemishire, whom one ought to recall was twelve when this behavior started. Morris has stepped down from his church. It currently appears that his son, who was slated to take over in 2025, will still do so.

Morris made incredible wealth in his various ministerial roles. (Exponentially more than Clemishire requested for counseling to help her deal with her trauma.)

This did get me curious. Certain religious organizations (including churches) are not required to file 990s (tax forms) as other nonprofits are—though those who value transparency often do. I did not expect to find a 990 for Gateway Church, and I did not. I’m working on trying to gather some other filings just out of sheer curiosity.

But I did find some 990s for some sort of ancillary organization called Robert Morris Evangelistic Association. According to the tax filings, its purpose is “promotion of the word of God and Christianity through ministering, preaching, teaching, and speaking in both public and private forums.”

Looking over some of the older documents, I did notice something odd: Morris, president of the organization—and for working some 15 hours a week for Robert Morris Evangelistic Association—was paid more than the total revenue of the organization in 2018 and 2019. (In 2018, the organization’s total revenue was $211,911 and Morris was paid $350,000; in 2019 revenue was $193,952 and Morris was paid $300,000.)

From Robert Morris Evangelistic Associations 2018 990

Well, as my daughter would say “the math isn’t mathing”