Talibangelist Bill Keller: Obama is no Christian

Ah, campaign season brings all the freakshow fundies out of the woodwork. Today's self-important member of the religious fringe is the "Dr. Phil of prayer," St. Petersburg, Florida-based Bill Keller of Liveprayer.com. He bleats to the Wildmon "news" organ OneNewsNow that Obama is a faux Christian Trojan Horse.

"A lot of the things that he is saying really call into question whether he really is a Christian," says Keller, offering up as an example Obama's statement that there are many roads that lead to God. "He has consistently been on record that he's willing to give away part of the land that God himself gave to the children of Israel directly to their enemies," he adds.

A campaign brochure titled "Faith. Hope. Change." describes Senator Obama as a "committed Christian" who visited a local church one Sunday, "felt a beckoning of the spirit and accepted Jesus Christ into his life." But Keller says Obama has views on social issues that most evangelicals regard as unbiblical.

"He has consistently voted to uphold a woman's right to kill babies," Keller points out. "He has consistently voted to support the gay agenda, gay 'marriage,' gay adoption, special rights for gays." Keller says while obviously only God can judge a man's heart, he does not think Senator Obama can call himself a Christian yet deny the basic tenets of the faith and rewrite them to suit his own purposes.

I guess John McCain's wiping sweat off his brow for not sidling up to this character. Keller laughably goes on to say that he has requested a formal sit-down with Obama to answer questions about his Christian faith. As if, Bill. Like he should give you the time of day.

For extra batsh*ttery points, check out the OneNewsNow forum for the reader comments on the article. They are truly disturbing.

Who is Bill Keller, you might ask? What a shady background this character is; I first blogged about him back in April 2006 when he was profiled at Creative Loafing/The Weekly Planet. Read on below the fold. From my earlier post:

It's nice that Bill can teach us about morality and family values with a background that sounds like your average scam artist when you read about his personal story of booze, coke, power suits, full-length mink coats, weekends in Vegas losing 50 grand at the crap table, according to the Weekly Planet. And his questionable dealings got him in a heap of trouble.

Then came a fateful dinner with a couple of old acquaintances from the brokerage world. They were investment bankers with knowledge of pending corporate takeovers. They set up a deal: The brokers would give Keller information about companies that were about to be bought up; he would buy gobs of their stock via an off-shore account. When news got out about the acquisition, the stock would skyrocket, Keller would cash out and the insider trio would split up the spoils.

This is the bit of business that eventually caught the attention of the SEC. The guy is a piece of work. He also has the deadly combination of arrogance and stupidity.

After a few months of legal scrums, the SEC referred the case to the U.S. Attorney's Office for criminal charges. Keller remembers the scene well: It was chilly in Chicago on Oct. 12, 1989. His lawyer had told him to be at the U.S. Attorney's office for a meeting. Keller was running late, so he had his limo driver pull up on the sidewalk in front of the federal building. He emerged from the back seat, draped in a mink coat, 45 minutes late.

...Ten days later, Keller left for a Florida vacation. He insists he did not go on the lam. Brazenly, he failed to leave a contact number with his lawyer, so he was not aware he'd been indicted. On Dec. 17, 1989, Keller was lounging around a friend's Pensacola Beach condo, sipping a snifter of Louis the 13th cognac, waiting for the pizza delivery man and Monday Night Football to come on, when he answered a knock at the door. A bevy of U.S. Marshals, with a helicopter hovering overhead, pushed Keller to the floor, handcuffed him and tossed him in the Escambia County Jail. On the day after Christmas, he was shipped back to Chicago, where a judge pegged him a flight risk, denied him bail and remanded him to the city's Metropolitan Correction Center.

Not long after I posted that piece, I received a nice little Christian email from Keller full of creative uses of ellipses.

Subject: from Bill Keller

From: "Bill Keller"

Date: Mon, May 1, 2006 12:51 pm

To: Pam Spaulding

...LOL..I'm always amazed at the vast amount of God-haters that I upset by simply sharing the love of Christ with the hurting and lost..the reality is Pam..one day you will die..that day sooner than you expect..and at that moment..there will only be one thing that matters..do you know Jesus as your personal Savior by faith..that choice alone will determine your eternal existence..I understand poor lost souls like you lash out to justify your own rejecting of Christ ...out of your insecurity..and deep rooted fear you are wrong..which by the way you are..at least now..when you die..and stand before God..and are cast into everlasting damnation..you won't be able to say you didn't know..there is still time Pam..I did my job..it is your soul..

..btw..if you helped 1 /100 of the people in your life my ministry does in an given day..you would not be so bitter and hateful...I will pray for you..

You will be in my prayers, be richly blessed,

Bill Keller

www.liveprayer.com

It's not surprising, though, that Don and Tim Wildmon's American Family Association take this con man seriously. Like I said, Obama's camp won't give this clown the time of day.

Check out Keller's video, "Barack Obama is NOT a Christian, he is an ENEMY of God":