The Sick Pattern of Sin-Leveling Behind the Robert Morris Allegations
Megachurch Pastor Robert Morris, accused of molesting a girl starting at age 12, was ‘restored.’ What about the victim?
Robert Morris, senior pastor of Texas-based multi-campus Gateway Church, resigned as allegations surfaced that in his twenties, Morris abused a girl, beginning when she was 12 and continuing for four and a half years.
When Morris resigned (notably, he was not fired), his church elders issued a statement that they were “heartbroken and appalled by what had come to light.” The board also retained a law firm, Haynes & Boone, LLP, to conduct an “independent, thorough, and professional review” of the abuse report.
It’s a tidy close that glosses over the church’s past response and its statements just days before concerning the abuse allegations. It skips beyond the problem of blame-shifting which so frequently makes the abused feel responsible for what they endured and sin-leveling, which allows predator clergy to be “restored” after abuse, as if their sin is equal to telling fibs or being prideful.
This cognitive trick is often also deployed in politics, when blame gets shifted to all corners and the foibles of one candidate are treated as equivalent to the corruption of another. Members of the same class are allowed a spectrum of bad…
