mAlice
professional daydreamer
16. A Pit Stop for Prayers
St. Petersburg Times, Feb. 15, 2000
http://www.sptimes.com/News/021500/Floridian/_Highway_to_Heaven.shtml
Check out what's going on in a back room at Ace Motors. It's not church. Or
is it? Having financial problems? Health problems? Marital problems? No need
to get all gussied up to go to church. Just log on to Liveprayer.com, 24
hours a day, every day, and get in touch with God, or at least someone who
will pray for you.
If, as they say, a Web site can be started by anyone, anywhere,
Liveprayer.com fits the bill.
Anywhere is a tiny room in the back of Ace Motors, a used car lot at 6660
46th Ave. N in St. Petersburg, a shabby white building surrounded by
older-model cars. Anyone is Bill Keller, the brains behind the Web site, who
says he found God and decided to devote his life to ministry when he was
doing federal prison time for fraud.
His site, billed as the "World's Prayer Meeting," gets hits from all over the
world, 10,000 a day by Keller's count. And that's just the beginning. If the
donations roll in, he foresees an Internet studio rising amid the rusty Ford
Thunderbirds and Dodge Darts.
(...)
"She will be totally set free of Epstein-Barr Syndrome," Garnet Blakley says
in answer to an e-mail from South Carolina. "Something is happening in this
girl's life, I rebuke her from her past."
A few minutes later, Blakley prays for a couple in Ohio who want a lower
interest rate for a home loan. Blakley, pastor of Victory Fellowship Church
in Clearwater, is the preacher of the day on Liveprayer.com.
(...)
Some theologians caution about clicking onto these sites, especially ones not
affiliated with a church. They say it can be risky for vulnerable people to
pour their hearts out to strangers.
(...)
"I call these Web sites "prayer light,' " Foerst says. "It is a very reduced
understanding of prayer. You log on and you ask for something. That is not
necessarily what prayer is about. My experience is that true religion comes
in community and commitment."
(...)
Keller, formerly of Schaumburg, Ill., moved to Clearwater in 1994, two years
after his release from prison in Chicago, where he served nearly three years
for securities and mail fraud.
He ran Global Investment, which sold unregistered securities in the form of
investment contracts, according to court records. He scammed in excess of
$175,000 and defrauded vendors of office supplies worth hundreds of thousands
more, according to the records, moving the money through banks on the Grand
Cayman Islands.
After about a year behind bars, Keller says, he found God. He got an
undergraduate degree in Biblical Studies from Liberty University while still
in prison and went into evangelism when he got out.
(...)
When Keller went to register the site name and found out that
http://www.liveprayer.com was still available, he took it as a sign from God.
His company is registered as a non-profit religious organization. Keller says
he hopes to make enough money through his donations to cover expenses and pay
himself a modest amount.
He responds to e-mails himself.
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/news/an200216.html#16
News about cults, sects, and alternative religions
St. Petersburg Times, Feb. 15, 2000
http://www.sptimes.com/News/021500/Floridian/_Highway_to_Heaven.shtml
Check out what's going on in a back room at Ace Motors. It's not church. Or
is it? Having financial problems? Health problems? Marital problems? No need
to get all gussied up to go to church. Just log on to Liveprayer.com, 24
hours a day, every day, and get in touch with God, or at least someone who
will pray for you.
If, as they say, a Web site can be started by anyone, anywhere,
Liveprayer.com fits the bill.
Anywhere is a tiny room in the back of Ace Motors, a used car lot at 6660
46th Ave. N in St. Petersburg, a shabby white building surrounded by
older-model cars. Anyone is Bill Keller, the brains behind the Web site, who
says he found God and decided to devote his life to ministry when he was
doing federal prison time for fraud.
His site, billed as the "World's Prayer Meeting," gets hits from all over the
world, 10,000 a day by Keller's count. And that's just the beginning. If the
donations roll in, he foresees an Internet studio rising amid the rusty Ford
Thunderbirds and Dodge Darts.
(...)
"She will be totally set free of Epstein-Barr Syndrome," Garnet Blakley says
in answer to an e-mail from South Carolina. "Something is happening in this
girl's life, I rebuke her from her past."
A few minutes later, Blakley prays for a couple in Ohio who want a lower
interest rate for a home loan. Blakley, pastor of Victory Fellowship Church
in Clearwater, is the preacher of the day on Liveprayer.com.
(...)
Some theologians caution about clicking onto these sites, especially ones not
affiliated with a church. They say it can be risky for vulnerable people to
pour their hearts out to strangers.
(...)
"I call these Web sites "prayer light,' " Foerst says. "It is a very reduced
understanding of prayer. You log on and you ask for something. That is not
necessarily what prayer is about. My experience is that true religion comes
in community and commitment."
(...)
Keller, formerly of Schaumburg, Ill., moved to Clearwater in 1994, two years
after his release from prison in Chicago, where he served nearly three years
for securities and mail fraud.
He ran Global Investment, which sold unregistered securities in the form of
investment contracts, according to court records. He scammed in excess of
$175,000 and defrauded vendors of office supplies worth hundreds of thousands
more, according to the records, moving the money through banks on the Grand
Cayman Islands.
After about a year behind bars, Keller says, he found God. He got an
undergraduate degree in Biblical Studies from Liberty University while still
in prison and went into evangelism when he got out.
(...)
When Keller went to register the site name and found out that
http://www.liveprayer.com was still available, he took it as a sign from God.
His company is registered as a non-profit religious organization. Keller says
he hopes to make enough money through his donations to cover expenses and pay
himself a modest amount.
He responds to e-mails himself.
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/news/an200216.html#16
News about cults, sects, and alternative religions
), but I love you.
