By: Rod Swift
Re: Holy Cow, St Petersburg!

Another example of loving domestic Christian terrorist-wannabe nutcases.
These ones are already possibly linked to terroristic activities
in the Northwest to further their death-cult-inspired
anti-government activities.

BTW, catch the reaction of the ministers in Clearwater.  I can't believe
they used "Holy Cow!" as an apt expression!

Rod "....FYI!" Swift :)
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ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, March 22, 1997
Reputation for racism taints church's welcome
By MIKE WILSON

CLEARWATER - The Easter weekend, the holiest time on the Christian
calendar, will bring to Clearwater what many will consider an ungodly
event: A meeting of an Idaho church group that believes white Europeans
are the true Israelites and Jews have conspired to control the American
economy.

Among those scheduled to speak: a tax-protesting minister from Missouri,
a Holocaust revisionist from Idaho and a Nebraska pastor whom one
human-rights activist describes as "a hardcore racist and anti-Semite."

America's Promise Ministries, of Sandpoint, Idaho, has been linked to a
series of bombings in the Pacific Northwest in 1996. But its pastor
said Friday the group was not involved.

"We're good people. We're Christians," pastor Dave Barley said. "We're
promoting the Christian Gospel, which I think is a benefit to anybody
of any race, of any nation, of any community."

Why is the group meeting in Clearwater? "Florida is a nice place. We
like to visit there, and that's the end of the story," Barley said.

Tampa Bay religious leaders were shocked to learn of the meeting.

"Holy cow! They're having their conference here?" said Roy Kaplan,
director of the Tampa office of the National Conference, which seeks
to strengthen relationships among religious groups. "They have a right
to have their conference. I just wish they would go somewhere else."

America's Promise Ministries will meet next Saturday and Sunday at the
Holiday Inn Select, 3535 Ulmerton Road. About 100 people are expected,
hotel general manager Richard Maslar said.

Maslar said the hotel was not aware of the group's beliefs when Barley
booked the room, using the name Gideon's Outreach. Maslar plans to
honor the reservation. "It's just another group that's having a
meeting here, as far as we're concerned," he said.

America's Promise Ministries is the outreach arm of the Lord's
Covenant Church, the Idaho congregation of which Barley is pastor.
Barley said the church "believes like any other fundamentalist church
out there. . . . We believe in salvation for all races, and that no man
can be saved except through Jesus Christ."

Although church members believe that northern European whites are the
Israelites described in the Bible, Barley denied that the church
preaches racism or anti-Semitism.

Asked if he thinks there is a conspiracy among Jewish people to
control the government - a commonly held belief among so-called
"Christian Identity" groups - Barley said, "I do believe there is a
conspiracy among Jews to control the money system, yes."

Coalition for Human Dignity, a Seattle organization that monitors
hate groups, said that the Lord's Covenant Church is more malignant
than Barley lets on. Among Barley's associates is Richard Kelly
Hoskins, whose book, Vigilantes of Christendom, forms the basis for the
Phineas Priesthood, according to CHD research director Robert Crawford.

"The Phineas Priesthood is an honor that is bestowed on a Christian
Identity believer who commits a racist or anti-Semitic or anti-gay
murder," Crawford said.  Hoskins' book is available through America's
Promise Ministries' World Wide Web site for $20.25, but Barley denied
that his church has anything to do with the Phineas Priesthood.

"I've never been to a Phineas Priesthood meeting, and I've never
heard anybody call themselves a Phineas priest," he said.

Other titles available on the Web site: The Anti-Federalist Papers;
Did Six Million Really Die? America, Free, White & Christian; and
The Way Home (Beyond Feminism & Back to Reality).

Church leaders in Tampa Bay said they were not inclined to disrupt
the Christian Identity meeting.

"I would not ever go on record as saying that a group doesn't have
a right to meet and do its own business," said the Rev. Manuel Sykes,
pastor of Bethel Community Baptist Church in St. Petersburg. He
invited Barley and his followers to join the effort "to reconcile and
to heal - with equal justice for everyone."
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