The staunchly conservative Rev. Bowler preaching to his congregation at the Temple Baptist Church.

Lindsay A. Miller / Arizona Daily Star

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Bill Bowler is not a man who tries to fit in.

The 80-year-old Baptist preacher is an outspoken ultra-right Republican in a left-leaning city. He's been in the local spotlight as a radio and TV personality for 45 years, and he doesn't mind being called a Bible-thumping, flag-waving preacher.

"I wear that label with honor," said Bowler, who has a show on Access Tucson now.

Bowler is the lone religious leader in Tucson who is publicly speaking out against the faith-based volunteers providing food, water and medical assistance to people illegally crossing the border from Mexico into the United States by foot.

He prefers directing his support to the Minutemen Project, an armed group that patrols the Arizona-Mexico border.

"I feel closer to Jeremiah than anyone else in the Bible," Bowler said in a recent interview at his Oro Valley home. "Everyone was against him but he stayed true to himself until the day he died. That's what I want to do. As long as I live, I want to take my stand for Christ and country — in that order."

"He's on the radical right and he's a strong Christian, and a strong patriot. That's why I like him," said Dick Oxnam, a retired Marine Corps colonel who has been a fan of Bowler's since the 1960s, when Bowler was a local radio personality. "It's unique in Tucson. He's a Christian and some people can't stand that, but really I don't know that many people dislike him — he's just got a strong opinion."

Standing 6 feet tall with a shock of white hair, Bowler is a noticeable, extroverted presence. He greets a reporter wearing a suit, saddle shoes and both a tie and handkerchief bearing the stars and stripes. On his lapel, he wears two pins —one an American flag, the other says "Support Our Troops." When he says good-bye, he does so with a kiss to the hand.

"I'm patriotic to the core. I've been screaming about the border for years. I give more money and time to support President Bush but I'm so mad at him right now I can't see straight. He called the Minutemen vigilantes, and we were only doing what he asked," Bowler said. "We are there doing a job for our country."

A native of Granite City, Ill., Bowler is World War II naval combat veteran and a graduate of Baylor University and Grand Rapids Baptist Theological Seminary. He moved to Tucson in 1959 from St. Louis, Mo., to start his ministry. His wife of 56 years, Berjouhi Agnes Bowler, has been living in a long-term care facility since 2001 following a traumatic fall. Each day, Bowler gets in his old silver Lincoln Town Car to visit her and they say the 23rd Psalm together — the Biblical passage that begins, "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want," and often is read during times of grief.

In addition to his cable show, Bowler leads Sunday services for about two dozen worshippers at Temple Baptist Church. The congregation meets in the Arizona Plaza Hotel, 1601 N. Oracle Road. It's currently closed down, but the owners allow him to use the space.

He's not afraid to mix pulpit and politics, and his stance on the border could not be further from other local religious voices weighing in about the crisis of migrants who are dying in the desert while making the illegal trek from Mexico into Arizona.

Among the more high-profile religious voices on border policy is the local faith-based No More Deaths movement, which for two summers has staffed a round-the-clock camp to aid migrants crossing the desert.

While No More Deaths and other religious leaders seek a more relaxed policy for crossing the international line, Bowler wants heightened security.

No More Deaths has been in the news recently because two of its volunteers —Shanti A. Sellz and Daniel M. Strauss — were arrested on charges of transporting illegal entrants after authorities stopped their vehicle and found three illegal entrants inside.

There has been an outcry not only from No More Deaths but at least 27 local and state religious leaders, who say the volunteers were taking the immigrants to get medical help, following the Bible's instruction of welcoming the stranger.

Bowler has no sympathy. He says the Bible does not condone breaking the law.

"As liberal as Tucson is, they'll get a great crowd," he said of Sellz and Strauss. "But they'll have as much success as a flea on an elephant."

J.C. Joiner, pastor of New Testament Baptist Church, 2855 N. Craycroft Road, praised Bowler for having a profound knowledge of Scripture that he's not afraid to proclaim. Indeed, Bowler says he's read the New Testament 460 times.

"Not only is Bill a powerful antagonist of religious compromise, but he intelligently articulates the inconsistencies of the secular, political liberalism," Joiner wrote in an e-mail.

Bowler's longtime golf buddy and fellow Baptist Allen Merz says he doesn't understand his friend's involvement in the Minutemen, and the pair don't always agree on politics.

"But as far as I'm concerned, Bill's a great friend. I love him like a brother," Merz said. "I'd say 75 percent of the city doesn't agree with him, so it's a real good thing he presents his views."

Indeed, critics have laughed off his politics, but Bowler doesn't mind a bit.

"If you don't want to be criticized, dig a hole, crawl in it and zip it shut," he said. "Thank God for my critics. Jesus said beware when all men speak well of you."