Less than a week after an Oklahoma woman accused Gateway Church founder Robert Morris of abusing her when she was a child, the church settled a sexual harassment claim against a former Gateway pastor.
Rachel Childress filed a civil lawsuit in 2023 alleging sexual harassment and a hostile work environment while employed at Gateway. The case was settled for an undisclosed amount on June 21, according to court records.
Telephone calls to Childress’ attorney, Debra Edmondson, were not returned.
Childress’ lawsuit comes on the heels of another lawsuit reported by The Roys Report (TRR). In that lawsuit, Gateway Church was accused of concealing the sexual assault of a girl who attended the church.
Childress took aim at former pastor Aldean “Al” Pearson, accusing him of sexual harassment and alleging Gateway pastors failed to listen and act on her accusations. She also accused the megachurch of failing to promote her, saying they wanted a man to occupy those positions, according to a 15-page complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
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Email message went to Lawrence Swicewood, Gateway Church spokesman and Pearson were not returned.
Childress was hired in May 2018 as a temporary administrative assistant for Pearson at Gateway’s North Richland Hills campus in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. Her relentless accusations against Pearson led to his firing from Gateway in 2021, the complaint states.
During the summer and fall of 2020, Pearson led multiple livestreamed prayer video calls for Gateway Church. As of Wednesday, several prayer videos showing both Pearson and Childress were still on Gateway’s Facebook page.
According to Pearson’s Linkedin account and Facebook account, he is a financial strategist.
Sexual harassment claims
Childress repeatedly outlines unwanted sexual overtures by Pearson, including commenting on her appearance as she battled cancer, the complaint states.
Pearson told Childress that God gave her cancer as a lesson and he repeatedly asked Childress to take her wig off and urged her to just go bald.
He also made comments about how good she smelled, inquired if she were dating, and would bring her gifts, the complaint states.
Pearson also forced Childress to be alone with him in his office with the blinds closed to discuss personal matters, the complaint states.
During weekly oversight meetings, Pearson began to complain about his marriage and his wife to Childress.
“Specifically, in one of these meetings, Pearson made a physical advance on Ms. Childress and talked to her about ‘love languages’ and how the two of them could do physical touch in his office and he could be her spiritual mentor,” the complaint states.
Childress rejected Pearson’s advances and told him she was uncomfortable with him. However, Pearson’s actions continued, the lawsuit indicates.
Childress alleged in the lawsuit that she was not immune from Pearson’s actions when attending worship services.
During a service, Pearson approached Childress and started talking about the story of the woman at the well found in the New Testament, according to the lawsuit.
Pearson told Childress that Jesus never forgave the woman, the complaint states.
Later the two were seated next to each other during a working lunch on March 21, 2021, when Pearson turned to Childress and said the MeToo movement was caused by false accusations against Bill Cosby. Cosby, who maintains his innocence, has faced civil and criminal action several times amid sexual assault allegations, most recently in January.
When confronting Pastor Kemtal Glasgow about Pearson’s activities, Glasgow told Childress not to be alone with Pearson.
Despite Childress repeatedly telling her supervisors she did not want to be alone with Pearson, saying she did not feel comfortable or safe with him, Pearson’s supervisors continued to have Childress report to Pearson.
Hostility at work
Childress was told Pearson had “changed” and urged to give him another chance, the complaint states, referring to when Childress was repeatedly placed under his authority.
After learning her supervisors didn’t believe her claims, Childress started recording her interactions with Pearson, according to the lawsuit.
Gateway Pastor Kyle Fox told her she was being insubordinate because she did not want to report to Pearson, the complaint states. On Oct. 21, 2019, Childress was presented a “written warning” for challenging authority.
In an April 20, 2021, “Reconciliation Meeting” with Childress, Pearson became hostile and verbally aggressive but admitted to Childress’ allegations, the complaint alleges.
But later, Childress was given a “Probation & Employment Commitment” document which blamed her for the situation rather than Pearson. Childress refused to sign the document.
During a six-week medical leave, Childress was asked to either resign with three months’ pay as severance or sign the Probation document.
On June 24, 2021, Childress received a written apology for how she had been treated by Gateway. Gateway also agreed to pay for counseling.
Childress replied requesting a written apology from Pearson and to be moved when she returned from medical leave.
Upon returning, she was presented with her second “Probation & Employment Commitment” document where she learned she would not be getting a written apology from Pearson because he had been terminated, the complaint states.
Paulette Gillespie, Human Resources Director, told Childress, “It is your fault Pearson is gone, so there will be no apology from him.”
Gillespie also said Gateway was willing to pay six months’ severance payment to Childress if she would resign.
Pearson was paid two years’ salary in exchange for his signature on a non-disclosure agreement, the complaint states.
On July 29, 2021, Gateway agreed to pay for Childress’ counseling. She returned to work on September 7, 2021, and was fired during a Zoom meeting. She was offered a “Separation Agreement” that offered six months’ pay and benefits.
‘Our congregation responds better to men’
Childress took the $15-an-hour job as Pearson’s temporary administrative assistant and eventually landed a full-time employee as Glasgow’s administrative assistant.
The change was not a promotion, after Childress saw her pay decrease to $14.42 per hour. The reason for the pay cut was that she was newly eligible for health benefits.
In February 2019, Glasgow asked Childress to apply for an open “Care Pastor” position which would have meant a significant pay increase and increased responsibility.
Pastors Stokes Collins and Wendell DePrang told Childress “That while she was more than qualified for the position, they were looking to hire a man for the position because ‘our congregation responds better to men,’” the complaint states.
A man was chosen for the job.
Four months later, Glasgow encouraged Childress to interview for the Associate Pastor of Groups position at the Frisco campus.
Again, Childress was told, this time by Pastor Adana Wilson, that although she was “well qualified for the position, the Frisco team wanted to hire a male for the position,” the complaint states.
For the second time, a man was chosen for the job.
Gateway added more responsibilities to Childress’s job as administrative assistant. Instead of offering a raise, Pastor Kyle Fox told her she should consider the extra work an “honor,” the complaint states.
Sheila Stogsdill is a freelance print journalist and digital reporter, primarily covering crime issues for KSN/KODE.
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9 Responses
No surprise here. An org created by a child molester has an atmosphere that more than tolerates a lot of sexual harassment. A snake fills out the leadership with a brood of vipers, just as Jesus said about the religious hypocrites. Gateway has never, ever been Jesus’ church. It has always been a carefully whitewashed septic tank. You have to get pretty close to it to see where and from whom the stench is coming from…
I used to have family who worked for Gateway. Laid off and forced to sign a severance agreement because the church did not pay into the Texas unemployment insurance system. That was quite a shock to find that out, particularly as the pastors there made quite a nice sum. It seems they don’t hesitate to whip out those NDAs, which makes me believe that the church is not operating with the open transparency that it should!
“……..she was “well qualified for the position, the Frisco team wanted to hire a male for the position…For the second time, a man was chosen for the job..”
Typical. This quite irks.
In Romans 16, Paul recognised and commended many women as “fellow” workers and servants in many churches. This implies, these women held leadership roles. How is it then, Paul simultaneously also restricted women in ministry? It makes zero sense. Such inconsistency means we have greatly misunderstood and misinterpreted Paul somehow, somewhere. someway.
And why are the male forms so afraid of a woman having leadership role? Is it “her” authority? Is the authority to speak or act as oracle and servant of EL not from EL? Are we not all mere vessels and servants?
Should we then quench the Spirit because the vessel is female? HaShem forbid. The gifts of Ruach were/are not exclusive to males only. This implies: women can be apostles, prophets, shepherds, teachers, evangelists, elders, deacons etc.
It is a grievous sin (blasphemous even) to restrain, restrict the giftings of the Ruach because it came in a female form. And especially not in this dispensation of grace, and of the Pentecost.
And to that, Thus saith the LORD of Hosts:
“Womankind, thou art loosed from the shackles of oppressive regime. Be free. Do NOT bury your gifts, you will be held accountable for not using it come judgement day. Matt 25: 25-30. “Daughters of Tzion, stretch out your tent cords. Enlarge your territory. Occupy till I come”. Amen. Amen.
1 Corinthians 14:34-35 cannot be authenticated that Apostle Paul wrote them? They were written in the margins of the text, not within the text. That’s why the context doesn’t flow. Paul begins with talking about the prophets, then out of nowhere, he throws in the “woman” thing and then goes back to talking about the prophets. Taken from a theological website,
“There is evidence that 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 was a marginal gloss from the oldest Bible in Greek, Codex Vaticanus, one of the oldest Latin manuscripts, Codex Fuldensis, transcriptional probability, and internal evidence. It identifies all sixteen instances where Vaticanus’ original scribe left a gap in the text at the exact point at least four words were added. Four-or-more-word additions survive in multiple manuscripts on all seventeen distigme-obelos-marked lines. The two-dot distigme marks the location of a textual variant. The obelos identifies what kind of variant it is, a multi-word addition that was not in the original text.”
Paul said he was a Pharisee of Pharisees and sometimes let that influence him. The Pharisees looked down on women. In 1 Timothy 2:12, Paul wrote, “I do not permit a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.” Paul did not write, “The Lord does not permit…” He wrote, “I…” Do the research to find out how Hebrew Orthodox men treated women. Jesus broke the traditional laws continually. That’s why His disciples were amazed He was talking to the Samaritan woman. What she did after speaking with him was preaching. The Greek word for “saying” in John 4:39 means doctrine, teaching.
Consider this, most of the Bible was written to the male pronoun. Does that mean women can’t be a part, only men? Can only a pregnant woman be saved? God is about freedom.
“circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” (Phil. 3:5-6) Paul was no more confessing to still being a Pharisee more or less than he was to still being a persecutor of the church or still trusting in law-keeping for righteousness.
The attempt to mutilate part of his epistles is supported by a few activists has failed to gain meaningful credence with Bible scholars, as reflected in Bible translations.
Jesus said: ‘the scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35) and “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 4:5)
How is stating the facts and presenting evidence a “mutilation” of Paul’s Epistles? There is evidence that it cannot be authenticated that Paul actually wrote 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 because those verses were found in the margins and not within the text. Also, Paul was still a human being as he evidenced in Romans 7 when he called himself a wretched man not being able to do the things he wanted to do. That is not a mutilation of him because he was the one who admitted he was still human. Even many years after his conversion, he still had arguments like the one with Barnabas over Mark which was quite severe because he wanted to cut Mark off for good and God over road those plans as Mark went onto write the Gospel of Mark. Also, Paul still let his flesh get in the way when he called the High Priest a whitewashed sepulcher (that was the old Saul that crept in for a moment to lash out in anger). Most importantly, what Paul understood and conveyed through his Epistles is that he knew God’s Grace even though he was still human as an example for us – he was the Apostle of Grace, but that didn’t mean the Pharisaical customs and attitudes from his formidable years were completely washed away. However, this isn’t about all of that. It is about freedom and how men have hurt daughters of God through the ages by demanding they sit down and shut up through an extreme misinterpretation of the heart of God through a few mistranslated scriptures. This may also be the root of why so many men have sexually abused and mistreated God’s daughters.
Please cite chapter and verse for the quote “Womankind, thou art loosed from the shackles of oppressive regime.”
I thank God for exposing and revealing false ministries.
I & many have been praying for the deliverance&repentance of many who are seeking Christ Jesus but are being deceived and have been made deceivers.
I have been reading Jonathan Cahn’s book called the BOOK of MYSTERIES and on day 17 HOW TO ALTER YOUR PAST…that page will answer all the questions we need answered. I pray everyone needs to read this page…day 17 PLEASE READ!! ROBERT MORRIS read this! I bet Jonathan Cahn does not remember what it says! Thank God for the answer!!! I pray God uses this!!