Gateway Church in Southlake has been rocked by the resignation of Lead Pastor Robert Morris last month following allegations that he sexually abused a minor more than forty years ago, but the megachurch has also been quietly dealing with multiple unrelated lawsuits involving claims of sexual abuse and harassment.
In April, the church settled a lawsuit filed by a woman in 2020 who claimed that multiple pastors conspired to cover up the alleged sexual abuse of her child by another congregation member, even encouraging other members of the church to ostracize her, CBS News Texas reported.
The woman claimed that the pastors failed to inform law enforcement of the abuse and tried to discredit the allegations.
However, church leaders distanced themselves from any responsibility, stating that the alleged incident did not occur on church property or at a church-sponsored event but at a private family home during a teen sleepover.
Another teen who heard about the alleged incident told his mother, who then reported it to “proper authorities within 48 hours,” church leaders said, per CBS News Texas.
In a statement to the news outlet, church leaders said the insurance company decided to settle the case “to avoid further litigation and expense.”
In a separate case, an employee who began working at the church in 2018 as an administrative assistant alleged that she was discriminated against and sexually harassed by her boss, who was a pastor at Gateway Church. The pastor allegedly told the woman, who had recently battled cancer, that “God gave her cancer to teach her a lesson.”
She claimed that the pastor made derogatory remarks about her appearance and made unwanted romantic overtures, but nothing was done when she reported the matter. Instead, she was told to avoid being alone with him and to apply for a more senior position.
After applying for the senior position, she was told she was “more than qualified” for the role, but the church preferred to hire a man to fill the position because “our congregation responds better to men,” CBS News Texas reported. A man was hired for the senior position, while the plaintiff remained as administrative assistant to the pastor, who allegedly continued to make inappropriate remarks and attempts to touch her physically.
The woman claims she was accused of being insubordinate when she requested to report to a different pastor. The pastor in question was eventually terminated in 2021 with two years of severance pay, and the administrative assistant was fired a few months later over a Zoom call.
The former employee sued the church in 2023, and the case was settled in June 2024 for an undisclosed amount.
Since the resignation of Morris in June, four members of the Gateway Church Board of Elders have taken leaves of absence while a third-party legal team investigates the allegations of sexual abuse against the lead pastor, CBS News Texas reported.