At the urging of a mutual pastor friend, Cindy Clemishire and I spoke. Cindy has wanted to tell her story for a long time. I have been writing about sexual abuse in the evangelical church for fifteen years. Cindy’s presentation of her abuse by Robert Morris was detailed, down to a description of what she was wearing when Morris’ abuse began. For the lawyers, I must say it is “alleged” abuse. However, I believed her account within short order and knew her story must be told.
As our readers know, many victims of childhood abuse often blame themselves for what happened. When they reach adulthood, they begin to understand that the responsibility for the abuse does not and should never rest on the young victim. Many victims start speaking out in their late 30s-50s. Cindy realized what had happened when she was 35 while watching an Oprah show featuring a man who described grooming.
Before I tell the story, I think it would be helpful if the reader watched this video of Robert Morris discussing his sexually immoral lifestyle as a teenager. Here is the relevant
portion of this video.
