By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — Televangelist Bill Keller will use his first service at his new church in lower Manhattan on Sunday to preach against the mosque and community center near Ground Zero.
Keller, a minister from Florida, said his message would “not be anti-Islam per se” but would clearly state his opposition to the project, called Park51.
“I think the mosque is in poor taste, especially at that location,” Keller said in a phone interview Thursday. “This is what Islam calls a ‘victory mosque.’”
Sunday marks the launch of Keller’s 9/11 Christian Center at Ground Zero, which will hold weekly 11 a.m. services at the New York Marriott, at 85 West St., one block south of the World Trade Center site.
Keller said several 9/11 family members plan to attend the service, and he would begin by honoring them. Attendees will also hear from a firefighter who was trapped in the rubble of the collapsed towers and believes his Christian faith helped him survive, Keller said.
Keller hopes to attract people who are not Christian or do not regularly attend church, and in the days before the service his colleagues blanketed the surrounding neighborhood with flyers announcing the event.
Keller also expects the service to draw protestors, so he has hired security.
By early next year, Keller hopes to move to a more permanent space that will allow the church to hold daily events. He said he is choosing between three buildings, all within a block of Ground Zero.
