As pressure grows, bishop remains set against ordaining women.(The Dallas Morning News)

FORT WORTH, Texas _ He's widely seen as the Rush Limbaugh of the Episcopalians, an unflinching conservative who's turned the Diocese of Fort Worth into a tiny kingdom where anti-women policies are deemed the way of the Lord.

But Bishop Jack Iker insists he's no big-mouthed bully. While he's not about to ordain women as priests, he says he loves and respects women. He even married one. They have three daughters and three granddaughters, for crying out loud.

"I'm not some white male chauvinist who hates women," he said. "People are trying to make me into some kind of ogre."

The Episcopal Church, a small but prominent denomination that has produced 12 U.S. presidents, opened the door to women priests 25 years ago. Iker leads one of three holdout dioceses and, to many observers, is the most resistant to change.

His boldness doesn't end there. A few weeks ago, he extended pastoral care to an Accokeek, Md., congregation embroiled in a bitter legal dispute with the acting bishop in the Diocese of Washington, D.C., who's a woman. Bishop Jane Dixon refuses to endorse the church board's choice for a new rector.

He's the Rev. Samuel Edwards of Fort Worth, who for several years led Forward in Faith, an organization that rallies against women priests and church policies seen as liberal. The group is based in Fort Worth.

Iker's interstate outreach caught church leaders off guard and drew national attention. In the Episcopal world, which is as attentive to etiquette as it is to scholarship, bishops generally don't stick their noses into other bishops' business.