By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — The Florida televangelist who founded an anti-Islam church near Ground Zero is having money problems.
Pastor Bill Keller is struggling to pay $7,000 a week to rent space and cover expenses for his Sunday services at the New York Marriott Downtown. Keller is also saddled with nearly $50,000 in older debt and said his donations are down over 40 percent compared to two years ago.
"As I come to you today, we have some very critical financial needs," Keller wrote in his Daily Devotional e-mail on Wednesday morning, which he said goes out to over 2.5 million people.
"By the end of the month in nine days, we need to bring in $62,000 to end the month at zero," Keller wrote. "The time is short, the spiritual state of this nation hangs in the balance, the souls of hundreds of millions of people are at stake. It is time to act!!!"
Keller launched his 9/11 Christian Center earlier this month with a fiery sermon condemning Park51, the mosque and community center planned near Ground Zero.
Keller plans to continue holding weekly services just south of the World Trade Center site until the end of the year, and then he wants to open a more permanent $1 million evangelical center in lower Manhattan at the beginning of 2011.
In a phone interview on Wednesday, Keller downplayed his financial difficulties, first reported by Salon.com, and said all churches and nonprofits are struggling.
"These situations happen all the time," Keller said of his public call for funds.
Keller added that he has a separate campaign to raise the $1 million he will need to operate his center, and it’s "coming together real nice." He said he is finalizing a long-term lease and plans to announce its location in the first week of October.
In addition to requesting cash donations, Keller is also asking his followers to send in their gold and diamond jewelry, through his Gold for Souls program.
