SOUTHLAKE (TX)
The Roys Report [Chicago IL]
July 11, 2024
By Ann Marie Shambaugh
A Dallas-area megachurch, whose pastor recently resigned amid allegations of sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl, employs a pastor who was convicted in 2004 of a child sex crime, according to Texas Department of Public Safety records.
Stephen Wilson, a convicted sex offender, is prison ministries campus pastor at embattled Gateway Church.
Last month, Gateway Pastor Robert Morris resigned, after a woman came forward with allegations Morris had sexually molested her from 1982—1986, when she was 12 to 16 years old.
In 2004, Wilson, a former middle school teacher, pleaded guilty to attempted indecency with a child, a third-degree felony. He was sentenced to two years in prison and required to register as a sex offender for 10 years. He also forfeited his teachers’ license.
According to Gateway’s website, Wilson founded G3 Prison Ministries in 2008, a nonprofit “determined to spread the Word of God inside the walls of the prison system.” In 2011, Gateway became official ministry partners with Wilson and G3. And in 2019, Gateway hired Wilson as campus pastor for prison ministries.
Lawrence Swicegood, a spokesperson for Gateway Church, did not respond to an emailed question about whether church leaders knew details about Wilson’s guilty plea when they began working with his nonprofit or when they hired him. He also didn’t respond to a question about whether Gateway leaders ever alerted the congregation of Wilson’s past or status as a registered sex offender.
“He confessed his crime, (was) convicted of the crime, sent to prison, completed his sentence, went to back to school and working (sic) on his doctorate degree,” Swicegood stated in an email. “As a former inmate, who paid his debt to society, Stephen is uniquely qualified to minister in these prisons and help inmates who are also seeking forgiveness, seeking to connect with God and seeking to find meaning and purpose in their life – even those who are on death row.”
Swicegood said Wilson was restricted to working only in the prison ministry and that Wilson “has never worked around nor attended various student or children (sic) events.”
Wilson, now 55, worked as a science teacher at North Richland Middle School before he was arrested and charged with three counts of indecency in 2002, according to reports from the time in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. One Star-Telegram report states that Wilson was accused of touching a 13-year-old girl’s breasts and genitals and caused her to touch his genitals. As part of his plea agreement, the charge was modified to attempted indecency with a child.
Biographical information about Wilson on Gateway Church’s website previously stated that Wilson had a “Damascus Road” experience at age 33. This changed his life and led him to confess to a past crime that resulted in him being sent to prison, the archived page stated. Wilson was 33 at the time of his arrest for indecency with a child.
Since June 18, Wilson’s biographical information on Gateway’s site has been changed to remove the reference to a “Damascus Road” experience, Wilson’s time in prison, and his “confession,” which appears to be in question. Now, the website simply states that Wilson experienced a “radical transformation” that led him to submit his life to Christ.
Wilson did not respond to requests for comment.
Discrepancy in Wilson’s account of arrest
In addition to the Gateway’s archived website, Wilson also indicated on an appearance on the Point of View podcast in 2019 that he had confessed to his crime. On the podcast, he stated that his conversion to Christ led him to “confess to a crime that nobody knows about” and turn himself in to the police.
However, a 2002 column in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tells another story. According to it, the principal of North Richland Middle School claimed that fellow teachers reported concerns about Wilson’s interactions with a female student to school administration over several months. The principal said he then alerted police of those concerns in April 2002. Wilson was arrested in July 2002.
TRR submitted a public information request for the probable cause affidavit connected to Wilson’s arrest. The North Richland Hills Police Department, which arrested Wilson, closed the request after finding “no responsive records” related to the incident.
A 2019 article in Outreach Magazine doesn’t say when Wilson came to Christ but seems to imply it happened after his incarceration. It quotes Wilson saying that he grew up in a Southern Baptist church and had “head knowledge of the Bible but had never submitted his life to Christ.” It states that in prison, Wilson saw fellow inmates “praying in a prayer circle” and was profoundly impacted.
“It blew me away. I’d never thought about those things happening in prison,” Wilson told Outreach. “So I just said, ‘OK, God, I get it. When I get out, I’m going to come back and reach those guys just like that.’”
When asked about the discrepancies regarding Wilson’s arrest and conversion, Swicegood said he could not validate or confirm “other media accounts.”