Day of Prayer creates schism in Indiana

? For the past decade, the Rev. William Keller has stood on the broad steps of City Hall on the first Thursday in May — with city officials, local judges and a police chaplain at his side — to pray in the name of Jesus Christ.

He planned to mark the National Day of Prayer the same way this year: a welcome from the mayor, a fervent plea that God guide civic leaders to act wisely, an echoing choir of “Amen” from the crowd of several hundred.

Then Keller was asked to share the microphone.

A Unitarian minister wanted to speak at the Day of Prayer ceremony, to offer an ecumenical “meditation” on leadership. A leader of the small Muslim community here requested a chance to pray aloud to Allah. A Jewish rabbinical fellow said he, too, would like to address the crowd.

Keller turned them down. Anyone of any faith could come listen to him pray. But he would not listen to them. “I’m busy with my faith,” he said. “I don’t believe in other gods.”

With that, he kicked up a furor that has left many in this Bible Belt town of 70,000 ashamed, saddened, angry — and sharply divided on a day that is intended to unify the nation.

Keller, who leads a strong evangelical Christian movement across southeast Indiana, will have his hourlong service at noon today, as planned. At 5 p.m., an interfaith coalition will take the steps of City Hall for a second public worship, with prayers from Baptists, Catholics, Muslims, Jews and others. Even an atheist has been asked to share his reflections.

Mayor Dan Canan and several other civic leaders plan to attend both events.

In recent months, Faiz Rahman, a local Muslim leader, has listened with unease as President Bush has from time to time used the rhetoric of evangelical Christianity to frame his vision for the nation. Rahman believes such language alienates citizens of other faiths.

He says he was “shocked” to hear a similar tone emerge in Muncie.

“You’d expect this in another country, in a theocracy somewhere, but not here,” said Rahman, a professor of geography at Ball State University “If this is to be a National Day of Prayer, then all faiths should be represented.”