May 30 (Bloomberg) -- John McCain should stop seeking endorsements from evangelical pastors and instead appeal directly to their church members, said Ralph Reed, the former Christian Coalition executive director.

``John McCain doesn't need to be standing at a bank of microphones next to a particular leader,'' Reed said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's ``Political Capital With Al Hunt,'' to be broadcast today. ``My advice would be stay away from endorsements and stick to the issues.''

This month, McCain, 71, repudiated controversial statements made by two ministers, John Hagee and Rod Parsley, who had endorsed the presumptive Republican nominee. McCain has been making efforts to mend fences with the evangelical movement, a core Republican constituency, with which he has long had a stormy relationship.

Reed, who recently published a novel, ``Dark Horse,'' in which Christian conservatives revolt against the Republican presidential nominee, said he didn't expect a similar reaction to McCain, an Arizona senator.

``There will be tremors, but not a full-blown revolt,'' he said.

`Top Down'

Reed, 46, said McCain's strategy of wooing evangelicals shouldn't be ``top down,'' and his meetings with leaders and activists should be held in private.

``He needs to connect with them'' by touting his opposition to same-sex marriage and his anti-abortion record, said Reed, a regional director of President George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign.

Reed took issue with McCain's stance that the decision to ban gay marriages should be left up to the states, not the federal government. He urged the senator to reconsider his opposition to the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would amend the Constitution to prohibit the practice.

McCain, however, shouldn't ``take a side'' on a California referendum aimed at overturning a state Supreme Court ruling that gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional right to marry, Reed said.

``I think in terms of what's right and in terms of what politically would help McCain, I'd stand four-square on the side of marriage and ensuring that marriage is defined as holy matrimony between a man and a woman,'' he said.

`Real Progress'

McCain has made ``some real progress'' in repairing his relationship with evangelicals, Reed said. He cited a May 6 speech at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in which McCain promised to choose judges in the mold of U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. Both were among the five justices who voted in June 2007 to weaken the senator's landmark campaign-finance law.

``It was one of the best speeches on judicial conservative philosophy from a Republican nominee in my career,'' Reed said.

This month, though, McCain distanced himself from Hagee, pastor of a megachurch in San Antonio who said God allowed the Holocaust so that the Jews would resettle in Israel, and called the Catholic Church ``the great whore.'' The candidate also condemned Parsley, who has delivered anti-Muslim sermons at his Columbus, Ohio, church.

Reed, whose ties to Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist convicted of fraud and conspiracy, were uncovered by McCain's Senate Indian Affairs Committee, said he supports the senator for president even if he doesn't agree with him on every issue.

``An 80 percent friend is not a 20 percent enemy,'' Reed said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 30, 2008 13:55 EDT