Paige Thomas DeHart

To: Pastor Robert Morris, Senior Pastor, Gateway Church

From: Rev. Paige Thomas DeHart, BS, LCDC, Gateway member from 2008-2015

Dear Sir,
I am appalled that you hosted Donald Trump at your church. In my opinion, this is a blatant breach of separation of Church and State. Additionally, I am baffled by your support of him.

In my opinion, Donald Trump has no experience with the Holy Spirit, which reveals the NATURE of Jesus. I perceive him to be loveless, corrupt, and spiritually bankrupt.

Yesterday, I read in the Star-Telegram that you are one of his religious advisors. Jesus said that if you are not with him, you are against him. To be “for” Donald Trump is to be against Jesus and everything he stands for.

You may ask, “who is this woman to write to me?” You do not “know” me but allow me to jog your memory a bit. I am the mother of the girl who was shot in the head and dumped on a dead-end road but had a sudden and miraculous healing. It was featured in your Gateway Life February 2016 magazine and I remember you being at the Habitation where we were invited to appear, because Pastor Dulin was highlighting her story. It was a couple of months later that I was interviewed for the article in the magazine.

I have never spoken of this before, out of respect for you and the work that you do. However, I now feel it necessary to correct the record of this article because it is a deception.

This article says that when your Pastor, Dustin Sample, arrived at my sister Kelly’s request, “he was met with about 20 family members who didn’t seem optimistic and bristled at the idea of group prayer.” It goes on to say that I said that Pastor Sample’s visit made a “big impact;” and that Pastor Sample said that “the moment I prayed with that family, I saw them put their faith in God.”

I am sorry, sir, but none of that is true and I said no such thing about his visit. But that is what happens when someone like him judges according to appearances and does not even bother to introduce himself to the mother of the critically injured girl he came to pray for.

The truth, sir, is that I am an ordained minister who has served in the criminal justice system for 18 years. I have been the spiritual director of two Epiphany Prison Ministry teams and a spiritual director on another Epiphany and a Kairos prison ministry team. Additionally, my former ministry, More Than Conquerors Through Christ Jesus, served in the Tarrant County jail from 2003-2006. Since then, I have been a counselor for parolees and probationers. I am also the author of Unmasked: One Soul’s Journey from Anonymity to Identity; which is dedicated to “you who have ever felt unworthy of love and forgiveness; and to the One who loves and forgives you.”

When Daniel Hopkins called to interview me, I told him the truth, but he chose to rewrite history to make it seem that Pastor Sample was responsible for “the hour we first believed.”

The article describes me as the “sister of Gateway member, Kelly Purselley.” I was a member of your church for eight years and my daughter has even attended your summer camps; until Pastor Sample barged into the darkest day of our lives; and I learned that Gateway would not help me financially without a pledge of future tithing.

Pastor Morris, I was at a Habitation on Southlake Blvd. where a woman asked for help and you took a spontaneous offering and gave it to her. I know your heart and your generosity. Your Church has changed.

Sir, I was the one who “bristled” at the idea of group prayer because I did not invite him there. I am a long-term member of Alcoholics Anonymous and an active member in my many communities. That day, I was feeling adequately supported and did not appreciate a stranger at my daughter’s near-death bed. That is why I was not present for the “group prayer.”

That day, I was more than optimistic about her healing because the Lord had already told me that I need only to believe and forgive for her to be healed, which was immediately followed by a change in perception. Jesus showed me that: if my daughter was not the victim and the shooters were my clients, I would be weeping for them. At that moment, I had total faith of her healing, but also left it in God’s hands with a prayer of surrender.

What is confusing to me is that if Daniel Hopkins had done even minimal investigation on me, or listened to me when I told him what happened, he would have known that the whole story was a lie; except for me appreciating a hug from one of the members of your pastoral care team. I was a guest on TBN in New York in 2014. It is not difficult to discover details about me.

So, I will conclude with advice you can pass on to your protégée Trump from our Lord concerning the Churches in Revelation.

You have left your first love.

Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works.

Be watchful, and strengthen the things that remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works to be perfect before God.

Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent.

I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and REPENT!

Sincerely,
Paige Thomas DeHart