Lawyers representing former Gateway Church pastor Robert Morris are heading to court to dispute his retirement package, worth millions of dollars, more than a year after his resignation.
Morris, 63, is demanding substantial payments and retirement benefits, which his legal team claims were promised by the church, according to CBS News. Morris founded Gateway Church—one of the largest megachurches in the United States—in 2000 and formerly served as an evangelical adviser to President Donald Trump. The church reportedly has around 100,000 active attendees across nine campuses in Texas, Wyoming, and Missouri.
He stepped down last year following allegations that he sexually abused a 12-year-old girl in the 1980s. The claims were first reported by The Wartburg Watch, a blog focused on exposing abuse and misconduct within Christian institutions.
Church lawyers are challenging Morris’s demands. In a court filing, they stated: “Amid the chaos his conduct had unleashed upon Gateway and his community, Morris was laser-focused on securing his financial future.”
Just three months after his resignation, Morris’s attorney sent a letter to the church's legal team outlining a number of demands, including more than $1 million allegedly accrued in Morris’s retirement account.
In addition to that, the letter claims church elders had verbally promised Morris a retirement benefit of $800,000 per year until the age of 70, followed by $600,000 annually for as long as both he and his wife remain alive.
However, as CBS News reports, the formal compensation agreement submitted to the court outlines a different arrangement—$170,000 per year for 20 years following his retirement. Crucially, the agreement includes a clause stating Morris would forfeit these benefits if he were terminated or resigned for violating church policies or causing reputational harm to the church.
Gateway Church has said it reserves the right to withhold the retirement funds should Morris be convicted of the criminal charges he currently faces in Oklahoma.