In the midst of General Convention 81 and the Great Kennesaw Debacle, we continue to keep our collective eye on Dan McClain, the rector-elect of St. Paul’s, Dayton, OH. McClain is currently suspended without pay in the middle of an ongoing Title IV case and acrimonious divorce. The acrimony, it is worth noting, originates with Dan.
As part of McClain’s ongoing pattern of malice towards his wife, children, and those he believes oppose him, court records show that McClain has again motioned the court to reduce his already paltry support payments, which appear to be less than $1,000 a month. To date, the court has rejected every one of these motions.
That also begs the question: What kind of man refuses to pay the expenses of his wife and children? How does this fit with McClain’s bit about patriarchy?
Simply put, if he’s not prepared to foot the bill, Dan should not have gotten married, nor should he had had children. But having done both, he now needs to have the integrity to honor his obligations — and not try to avoid them via lies, bullying, fabrications about his wife being mentally ill, and more.
And while McClain will no doubt argue that, now that he is suspended without pay, a reduction in his support obligations is warranted, his ecclesiastical suspension is something he chose. Indeed, McClain has had myriad opportunities to reach a negotiated settlement but has rejected them all. Thus, our hope is that the judicial system will recognize that Dan is not a victim of circumstances, but rather his own childish, hateful, narcissistic behavior.
This conduct is consistent with McClain’s win-at-all-costs, crush-the-opposition approach to conflict, which parishioners and former church members have described to Anglican Watch on numerous occasions.
Such behavior is inconsistent with the message of the Gospels or McClain’s claim to be a priest versus some disheveled, greasy-looking, overpaid fool running around in a clergy costume.
But it doesn’t stop there.
Sources outside the family tell Anglican Watch that, even as McClain pleads poverty, he is spending big money around town, with several big-ticket purchases apparently intended to sway his children and engender parental alienation from his wife.
That begs the question we’ve asked before — what kind of human being undercuts and disrupts the relationship of their children with their mother?
Children deserve a loving, stable, compassionate home. They do not deserve to be used, as Dan McClain is doing here, as pawns in a game of domestic “gotcha.”
Indeed, we have reason to believe that McClain frequently ditches his kids when he has custody in order to hang out with his adulterous partner. As a matter of policy, we are not naming her despite her conduct, as she is not a public figure in the way that McClain is.
Thus, it is indeed ironic that McClain is making such an effort to cause parental alienation when he is spectacularly indifferent to the welfare of his children.
As to McClain’s future employment, as far as Anglican Watch is concerned, he cannot exit the Episcopal Church soon enough. At the same time, we must caution other prospective employers — carefully do your homework before making a decision. The disturbing behavior we see coming from Dan McClain is not an aberration, but conduct that he treats as normative.
We also remind potential employers of Dan’s weird conduct, including conducting an exorcism in his own church—even as he brazenly commits adultery. Go figure.
We wouldn’t trust McClain further than we could throw his sketch, “patriarchal,” adulterous backside.
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