Harriet Miers and Her Church

For 26 years, Harriet Miers has belonged to an evangelical North Dallas church that is steadfastly opposed to abortion and gay marriage and takes other conservative positions on controversial social issues. Should she be confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court, court historians say, Miers would be the only justice with an evangelical background.

But those close to her say it's a mistake to assume that her affiliation with

would dictate how she would decide cases - including cases her church cares deeply about.

"You can't extrapolate from a person's personal views to how they're going to judge a case," said Nathan Hecht, a Texas Supreme Court justice who first brought Miers to Valley View, his church for many years. "They don't determine what the law is."

The White House said President Bush did not consider Miers' personal ideology or religious beliefs in nominating her to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who is retiring.

"The president has been very clear that he chooses judicial nominees based on their temperament, judicial philosophy and commitment to interpret the law rather than legislate from the bench," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.

Miers grew up in Dallas attending Catholic and Protestant churches, said her sister-in-law Elizabeth Lang-Miers, a state appellate judge. Miers' mother "imbued" her children with a strong sense of Christian faith, said Lang-Miers, but she added that she wasn't sure whether Miers considered herself Catholic or Protestant growing up.

"My impression at the time and since was that she considered herself, if anything, Catholic. But she really didn't consider it very much," said Hecht.

In the late 1970s, Hecht recalled, he and Miers were in the same Dallas law firm and would have late-night discussions at work about faith. "We would talk about it, and over the course of some months, I suggested she ought to think about a more serious commitment. She said she'd let me know.

"One day she came out of the office and said that's what she was going to do. I said, 'So now what?' She said, 'I need to find a good church to go to.' I said, 'Well, you ought to come to mine.' "

Miers did indeed join Hecht - who describes their long relationship as that of two "good, close friends" - in attending Valley View Christian. In 1979, she joined the church and underwent a full-immersion baptism there.

Asked whether he thought she considered herself a born-again Christian, based on her baptism, Hecht said, "absolutely."

The church, located today on Marsh Lane north of Trinity Mills Road, is one of about 5,500 congregations nationwide that are proudly nondenominational and work together to support Christian colleges and missions. These churches describe themselves as evangelical.

"That'll tell you a lot theologically," said Barry Hankins, an associate professor of history and church-state studies at Baylor University. "It'll tell you they affirm the authority of Scripture and they affirm a conversion experience followed by baptism."

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