Latest news with #churchscandal
The Guardian
23-07-2025
- The Guardian
Sunday school teacher jailed for sexually abusing nine children protected by church leader, Victorian cult inquiry hears
A Sunday school teacher who was jailed for sexually abusing nine children was protected by the leader of his fundamentalist church, after parents reported the abuse to him instead of police, a Victorian parliamentary inquiry has heard. Catherine and Ryan Carey, former members of the Geelong Revival Centre (GRC), gave evidence at the first hearing of the parliamentary inquiry into the practices of cults and organised fringe groups on Wednesday. The inquiry was established in April, after allegations of coercive practices at the GRC, as detailed in LiSTNR's investigative podcast series Secrets We Keep: Pray Harder. The church has not publicly commented on the allegations contained in the podcast. Led by the legislative assembly's legal and social issues committee, it is not examining specific religious groups or their beliefs but the methods they use to attract and retain members – and whether those practices amount to coercion that should be criminalised. Ryan told the inquiry the man had a valid working with children check at the time of the offending and described the government's screening process as a 'Band-Aid on an amputee.' Sign up: AU Breaking News email 'He was convicted last year of molesting nine kids in the Geelong community and the parents that found out reported it to the cult leader – and this was in the judgment – instead of going police,' he said. 'There was a two-and-a-half day lag where this guy was able to destroy evidence – I think was 12 terabytes of child pornography – because the parents didn't do the right thing and go report this [to] police.' Catherine said during this time a child was also left in the care of the man. She said GRC's leader only contacted police after learning the man had already turned himself in. Ryan said the abuse went unreported because the GRC acted like a 'state within a state' and believed its authority was 'higher than the law of the land.' He said when sexual abuse occurred within families, it was also 'covered up' by the GRC and victims 'blamed' by their offenders. 'The girls were always seen as the flirts and the ones that were leading the men astray, like it was never the male's fault, which is, it's just horrible,' Ryan said. He told the inquiry the environment within the GRC was 'unsafe for kids', saying it was common for young people to be left alone with elders. Elders, meanwhile, were regularly instructed to physically punish children – especially those with single mothers. 'If you were in Sunday school or child minding, you could hit kids,' Ryan said. 'It was absolutely disastrous. I speak to adults now that are still traumatised.' Families were also instructed to discipline their children harshly. Ryan told the inquiry he was told to 'crush my kids' will by the time there are three to make them compliant' while Catherine said comparisons were made to 'breaking in a horse'. The couple have since left the GRC and founded the group Stop Religious Coercion Australia. They maintain the centre is a cult, as it uses 'friends, family and fear' to control its members and isolate those who leave. Ryan said his father was 'second in charge of the cult' in Geelong and, from the moment he was born, he 'answered to the cult and the cult leader', living in a 'constant state of fear' that the 'world was going to end'. Catherine, meanwhile, joined at age 19, during a period when she had experienced trauma and felt isolated and vulnerable, or 'ripe to be sucked into a cult', as she put it. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The GRC has been active since the late 1950s and has a network of more than 20 assemblies across Australia and overseas. At its peak, the couple said the GRC had more than 650 members, though the number has since fallen to about 200. Each working member was expected to donate at least 10% of their salary to the GRC, described as a 'free will offering'. 'It's not really free will. It's 10% or your risking hell,' Ryan said. He said some members were discouraged from seeking medical treatment, for everything from broken bones to cancer, as it was believed illness could be healed by prayer. 'I had a close friend that he was so indoctrinated he believed that God would heal him in his cancer and he passed away,' Ryan said. The couple also allege some who have left GRC have gone on to commit suicide or died of a result of alcohol and drug abuse. 'I know of suicides in even teenage years, where kids stuck in that situation have suicided,' Ryan said. 'It feels like a hopeless situation.' Catherine added: 'Not to mention ones who … because of addiction and things like that died as a result of that, from their trauma.' In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@ or jo@ In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. Other international helplines can be found at
CBS News
18-06-2025
- CBS News
Gateway Church announces staff layoffs amid "challenges" with its former pastor Robert Morris, tithing
After the child sexual abuse scandal involving its former pastor, Gateway Church in Southlake announced Wednesday that it's laying off some of its staff. In a letter to the congregation, Gateway elders said tithing "has not mirrored attendance," and due to the issues with its former lead pastor and church founder, Robert Morris, there has been a "significant drop in giving levels." The letter assured members that despite the challenges, the church maintains strong financial and accounting records. But after church leadership evaluated the situation, they determined "restructuring of our staff is necessary, requiring the tough but necessary step of staff reduction." "This was an extremely difficult decision for us to make, and we didn't come to it quickly or easily, and waited as long as we could. This decision was an important step to ensure we are able to minister to our church family well; however, it affects real people and members of our church family that we've loved and served alongside for years, which is what makes it so painful. And we are trying to love our staff well through this painful process," Tra Willbanks, a church elder, said in a separate statement Wednesday. Legal battle between Gateway and Morris Legal documents filed in May revealed that 63-year-old Morris is demanding millions of dollars in payment and retirement benefits from the church following his 2024 resignation. He stepped away after allegations resurfaced that he sexually abused a 12-year-old girl, identified as Cindy Clemishire, in the 1980s. Church lawyers wrote in the court filing that "amid the chaos of his conduct had unleashed upon Gateway and his community, Morris was laser-focused on securing his financial future." In September 2024, Morris' attorney sent a letter to Gateway that included a demand of more than $1 million that had accrued in Morris's retirement account, and claimed that the elders verbally promised him a retirement benefit of $800,000 per year until he turned 70. However, according to a retirement compensation agreement included in the court filing, the church would pay Morris $170,000 per year for 20 years. Sexual abuse allegations against Morris In March 2025, Oklahoma prosecutors charged Morris with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child stemming from the allegations made by the victim, Clemishire. Morris has since pleaded not guilty. Clemishire claims Morris abused her from the age of 12 to 17. Morris was a traveling evangelist in his 20s and had become close to Clemishire's family. When the story broke, Gateway church elders said Morris disclosed to them he'd had an extramarital affair, but not that he had allegedly abused a young girl. Morris and the church had also said that Morris underwent "a two-year restoration process" that included him "stepping out of the ministry during that period." On June 12, Clemishire and her father filed a lawsuit against Morris, his wife and several current and former Gateway leaders, alleging that they knew about Morris' deceit.
Daily Mail
20-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Glamorous teacher who's also Baptist church leader avoids jail over sexual assault of boy aged just 15
A church volunteer who had an illicit sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy at her congregation for nine months has dodged jail. Reagan Danielle Gray, 27, sent naked pictures 'on a daily basis' to the boy after they met at Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas. But they never went further than oral sex during their illegal affair between September 2020 and May 2021, because Gray wanted the teen to 'stay pure'. Gray, who was at the time a teacher at Sylvan Hills Middle School, pleaded no contest to second-degree sexual assault in a plea bargain on Monday. Judge LaTonya Honorable sentenced her to six years probation and a $1,000 fine in the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court. Gray will also have to register as a sex offender. Gray was originally charged last August with first-degree sexual assault as she was in 'a position of trust or authority' over the boy. She was fired by the Pulaski County Special School District soon after the charges were laid. The boy's family sued the church in December for negligence, negligent hiring, negligent supervision and negligent retention. The teen's parents said they were 'grateful that our son has one less painful load to carry' in a statement after Gray was sentenced. 'What's difficult to reconcile is how many adults repeatedly failed him - people with power, responsibility, or influence who looked the other way. Institutions that protected themselves,' they said. 'Systems that made justice harder than it should have been.' The court heard Gray met the boy at the church, one of the biggest in Arkansas and once attended by former president Bill Clinton, where he was also a member of the student ministry. He told detectives that Gray found his phone number through the group chat for the church's music program. The church sent her for counseling after the boy's parents discovered text messages alluding to the affair on their son's phone, but she was welcomed back within weeks and resumed her abuse. The pair met in her car and in her Monticello apartment until May 2021 but the boy told investigators he could not remember if he responded to her demands for naked images in response to her torrent of nude photos. 'I don't have explicit memory of doing that but, with how often she requested it, it probably did happen,' he admitted. The boy's parents confronted Gray and informed head pastor Steven Smith after discovering a series of text messages. Smith said he confronted Gray and suspended her from student ministry despite her insistence that her relationship with the boy was not sexual. The police were not informed and the church assigned Gray an 'accountability partner' - Smith's wife Ashley. But Gray resumed her abuse after returning from her counselling, switching her communications with the boy to Snapchat. It was not until a counselling session with Smith in September 2023 that Gray admitted the relationship was 'sexual in nature' and continued after her suspension. Police were called and the boy told FBI investigators that the pair had sex between five and 10 times during the fall of 2020. He said Gray performed oral sex on him but the pair did not have intercourse 'in order for [him] to stay pure'. Smith resigned as pastor of the 128-year-old church, which routinely attracts nearly 1,000 people to its services, just before Gray was charged.
