9/11 Christian Center Creator Endorses Construction of Mosque Near Ground Zero

(Aug. 16) -- "There is tremendous religious intolerance around the world. One of the great things about this nation is that we have religious tolerance. Anyone is free to practice their religion, to worship any God or not, to build houses of worship where they see fit, in accordance with local laws."

You'd be forgiven for thinking that those lines were an excerpt from the Aug. 13 speech by President Barack Obama declaring his belief that a Muslim group has the right to build a mosque two blocks away from ground zero, where the World Trade Center fell on Sept. 11, 2001. But they're not. As unlikely as it may sound, they're actually the words of Bill Keller, the evangelist minister behind a proposed 9/11 Christian Center at Ground Zero, which he says he conceived last month specifically as a rebuttal to the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque," aka Cordoba House, aka Park 51 development.

In an exclusive interview with Surge Desk, Keller, a 52-year-old televangelist and founder of the nondenominational online Christian church LivePrayer.com, clarified his previously stated position that the mosque was a "spit in the face of the people of New York," as DNA Info quoted him as saying when the project was announced.

"I don't oppose their right to build the mosque there, that's in their [the Cordoba Initiative's] right," he said. "My whole position on religious and spiritual matters has always been, no matter how much I personally disagree with your message, you can say it -- that's what the Constitution allows. But it also asks that you give me the opportunity to share my message in the same area, and let the people decide which one is the truth."

Keller says he is in "phase one" of his own project, a $1 million Christian house of worship that will be located at one of three different sites in lower Manhattan, close to both the mosque and the craters left behind by the Twin Towers. (The exact location will be finalized within the next 45 days, he expects).

According to Keller, the project is being funded primarily by individual donations from some of his 2.5 million LivePrayer network of paid subscribers. He does not plan to release a list of donors by name, but "can guarantee that all of them live in the United States," where, he points out, one thing is shared between the controversial mosque's supporters and detractors: "The bottom line is, we are all simply enjoying the freedoms that this nation has to offer."