9/11 Christian Center

The service was punctuated by gospel singing and a testimonial from a volunteer firefighter who was a first reponder on Sept. 11. Despite the small turnout, the service attracted journalists from the New York Times, the New York Post, AOL, Newsweek, Dutch television and the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, among others.

Playing to the press, Keller said several times he is not a “hate-monger” while also repeatedly calling Islam a “1,400-year-old lie.”

Below is a sample of Keller’s sermon, in which he goes after Beck and Rauf.

UPDATE: And here is video of me interviewing Vincent Forras, a onetime Republican Senate candidate in Connecticut and a volunteer firefighter. Before Keller’s sermon, Forras spoke about his experiences on Sept. 11. He told me he considers the 9/11 Christian Center “a story of love out of tragedy.”

(Keep in mind here that Keller, who turned to Christianity after being imprisoned for insider trading in the late 1980s, has been involved in schemes in the past to get people to send him jewelry and to make money off of a Birther informercial.)

Here’s the emergency appeal that was appended to Keller’s daily prayer e-mail on Friday (emphasis ours):

***As we wind down the last 13 days of the month, we still have $35,000 to cover the balance of our September budget, plus it is critical we pay off the last $20,000 of our 2009 shortfall. In addition, we still need to cover the $7,000 for last weeks 9-11 Christian Center operations and the $7,000 for this week and next. So that is $76,000 we need to raise over these last 13 days. I am praying for 4 specific people to step up TODAY to help me cover $34,000 that is critical, and will count on a collection of everyone else giving as they are able to make up the last $42,000. Eveyone can pray, and most everyone can sacrifce something to help me insure these needs are met!

SPECIFICALLY, I AM ASKING GOD TO SEND ME 4 SPECIAL PEOPLE TODAY. FIRST, I NEED ONE PERSON WHO IS ABLE TO WIRE TRANSFER OF FEDEX $15,000 TODAY. THIS COVERS $15,000 OF THAT $20,000 WE STILL OWE FROM 2009 AND NEEDED TO BE PAID LAST FRIDAY. SECOND, I NEED ONE PERSON WHO IS ABLE TO WIRE TRANSFER OR FED EX THE $7,000 FOR THE 9-11 CHRISTIAN CENTER OPERATIONS LAST WEEKEND. THIRD, I NEED ONE PERSON WHO CAN COVER THE LAST $5,000 OF THE $20,000 FROM 2009. FOURTH, I NEED ONE PERSON WHO CAN COVER THE $7,000 FOR THIS WEEKENDS 9-11 CHRISTIAN CENTER OPERATIONS. I HAVE BEEN ON MY KNEES PRAYING TONIGHT FOR THE LORD TO SPEAK TO 4 HEARTS, AND FOR THOSE 4 PEOPLE TO BE OBEDIENT. IF YOU ARE ONE OF THE FOUR, CONTACT ME AT: bkeller@liveprayer.com AND I WILL GET YOU THE BANK WIRE OR FEDEX INFO YOU NEED. THANK YOU!

Reached by Salon, Keller insisted that the church “will keep going until the end of the year.” Regarding the fundraising plea, Keller said in an e-mail: “We obviously want to raise the funds for the weekly services above and beyond the monthly budget … but will move $$ around as we need to cover everything.”

But, Keller said, “this stunt is just stupid.” He added that there is “no biblical support for such a thing” and “it does nothing to advance the Gospel in any way.”

Keller, who, like Jones, is based in Florida, says he does not know Jones.

Petraeus has argued that Jones’ plan to burn Qurans may put American troops in danger. There has already been a protest in Kabul about the plan.

It is also worth keeping in mind in all this that Jones’ Dove World Outreach Center has a membership of just 50 people.

But the Daily News today has a story quoting mosque opponent Andy Sullivan speaking out against Keller. The twist is that Sullivan seems to object to the 9/11 Christian Center on primarily tactical grounds. Here’s the passage:

Andy Sullivan, a leader in the movement to move Park51, said Keller’s 9/11 Christian Center is “just what we do not need” near Ground Zero.

“This guy is going to justify all the people who call us bigots and racists for opposing the mosque,” he said.

Sullivan, by the way, is a New York construction worker behind the “Hard Hat Pledge,” which seeks to convince other workers to promise not to work on the construction of Park51.

Still no word on Keller’s project from the Anti-Defamation League, Gov. David Paterson, New York gubernatorial candidates Rick Lazio and Carl Paladino, Mitt Romney, Dan Senor and Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer — all of whom we have asked about the 9/11 Christian Center.

Here is Sullivan on Fox the other day:

So we reached out to several critics of the Park51 Muslim community center, many of whom have made the putative sanctity of the neighborhood around ground zero central to their argument against the mosque. Why should this anti-Muslim, anti-gay, and anti-Mormon pastor be allowed to deliver bigoted sermons — and potentially profit off of the memory of Sept. 11 — so close to the site?

So far most of the people and groups — including the Anti-Defamation League and anti-mosque New York gubernatorial candidates Carl Paladino and Rick Lazio — have simply not responded to our inquiries.

A spokesman for Newt Gingrich responded that the former speaker would not comment. Now, that position is actually consistent with Gingrich’s argument against the mosque. He never focused on the sacredness of the neighborhood around ground zero, arguing instead that Park51 was somehow a monument to Islamist victory over the West.

But plenty of other politicians and pundits have claimed that this really is a question of sanctity. Here’s Charles Krauthammer the other day in a column on “Sacrilege at Ground Zero”:

A place is made sacred by a widespread belief that it was visited by the miraculous or the transcendent (Lourdes, the Temple Mount), by the presence there once of great nobility and sacrifice (Gettysburg), or by the blood of martyrs and the indescribable suffering of the innocent (Auschwitz).

When we speak of Ground Zero as hallowed ground, what we mean is that it belongs to those who suffered and died there — and that such ownership obliges us, the living, to preserve the dignity and memory of the place, never allowing it to be forgotten, trivialized or misappropriated.

Former military spokesman Dan Senor also argued in the Wall Street Journal that Park51 is offensive because ground zero is “sacred ground.” So where are Senor and Krauthammer on the 9/11 Christian Center? We’ve put in inquiries with both and will let you know if we hear back.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has at least been consistent. Asked about the church project, spokesman Stu Loeser told Salon:

“Either you believe everybody has the right to worship who they want and where they want, or you don’t – Mayor Bloomberg does. And he feels strongly that government should not be vetting religions or religious leaders.”

“This is not to be confrontational with the Muslims, it really isn’t,” he said of the 9/11 Christian Center. Asked about the center’s website, which calls Islam a “false religion” whose 1 billion adherents “are going to Hell,” Keller said it was not intended as confrontation but rather “telling the truth.”

And he insisted the money donated to him for the church project, the cost of which he pegs at $1 million, will be used for legitimate purposes — even though Keller has been involved in questionable fundraising schemes in the past. Our favorite is Gold for Souls, a project of Keller’s LivePrayer.com ministries, which advertises “personal responses to all email prayer requests.”

Gold for Souls is a service in which you send Keller your “old gold, jewelry, diamonds, and precious items” and … well, that’s about it. Keller, who dedicated his life to ministering after an insider trading conviction in 1989, makes his pitch on a promotional video for Gold for Souls:

Today we legally slaughter 4,000 innocent babies every 24 hours in this nation … We’ve made mainstream sexual perversions of every kind. Our government supports the enemies of israel. Pornography and gambling are now socially acceptable. We bow down and worship every false god and idol man has dreamed up in his deranged mind. …

Now you can be part of this great movement to turn this nation back to God and biblical truth! One way you can help is by donating your old gold and jewelry to Gold For Souls.com.

He continues: “Gold For Souls will not only get you a tax deductible donation receipt for the fair market value of your gold and jewelry, but it will pay you eternal dividends since the funds will be used to help lead this nation back to God and biblical truth and the souls of men to faith and Jesus Christ.”

Keller told Salon that the service has been “well-received” since it launched in February and has helped support the work of his St. Petersburg-based outfit. He also stressed that he was merely paid to host and produce an infamous 2009 Birther infomercial. The proceeds from the infomercial, in which viewers were asked to pay $30 to send faxes demanding Obama’s birth certificate, went to his partner in the project, conservative activist Gary Kreep. (Keller added, “It would be nice to see someone get a hold of that original birth certificate.”)

As for the 9/11 Christian Center, Keller is eager to get started, so he claims he will travel to New York from Florida once a week starting in September and preach at the Embassy Suites hotel in lower Manhattan, until he finds a permanent home — or, perhaps more likely, the project fizzles.

(Keller contacted Salon after a piece ran about him yesterday, writing in an e-mail, “I know Salon is nothing but a smear rag..but at least ahve [sic] the nads to call.” So we did.)