Addressing Abuse within Evangelical Churches and Organisations

By Ruben Alarcon

At the beginning of 2020, I remember attending Gateway Church in Dallas, Texas, with my family under the leadership of Pastor Robert Morris. We had supported his ministry for many years and respected his guidance. Many of his books still sit on our shelves, having brought great encouragement to believers, both young and old. What we didn’t know was his abusive past—something he never acknowledged or confessed publicly. Recently, he was convicted in Oklahoma for such abuses. We are left wondering: How do people like him continue to evade accountability or discipline from church authority despite such levels of abuse and manipulation?

In the last decade or so, many churches and Christian organisations have come under the scrutiny of social media—exposed not only as irresponsible but, in many cases, complicit in years of overlooked abuse.

The most recent Cambridge Papers article by David McIlroy examines the failures in accountability within church leadership and proposes structural reforms to ensure justice for both abusers and victims. For years, it was easy for evangelicals to distance ourselves from the scandals within the Catholic Church. However, many Protestant and evangelical churches have shown themselves to be similarly complicit.

This raises important questions:

• How can we rebuild trust in our churches?

• Should any one person wield so much power?

• Do we need a better system to hold church leaders accountable?

If we want to see younger generations returning to church—leaving behind their flirtation with witchcraft and other spiritual experiments—we must confront these questions head-on. I encourage you to read the article, which explores these issues through a relational and biblical lens.

 The views and opinions expressed above are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the Jubilee Centre or its trustees.

We invite you to attend a joint Cambridge Papers/Jubilee Centre webinar with David McIlroy on Tuesday 29th April at 7:30pm [link].