Welcome To Campers Withdrawn Sandpoint Church Group Will Meet As Scheduled

A Sandpoint-based church group that critics say is white supremacist will have its meeting in New Mexico as scheduled, but Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez issued a “Proclamation of Un-Welcome.”

The New Mexico District Council Assemblies of God Inc., which runs the campground at Mountainair, said it had considered canceling the lease under which America’s Promise Ministries of Sandpoint was to use the campground.

William Lock of Albuquerque, attorney for the New Mexico district of the Assemblies of God churches, said the New Mexico district reluctantly decided it could not cancel the contract.

Civil rights groups, including the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., and the Coalition for Human Dignity in Seattle and Portland, have said America’s Promise sends a message that is anti-Semitic and white supremacist.

Assemblies of God officials said they were unaware that the Idaho group was controversial when they agreed to rent the campground for the America’s Promise summer camp meeting Aug. 9-15.

Frazier Marks of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., an attorney for America’s Promise, said Tuesday that America’s Promise does not offer messages of hate.

“To say that we do is patently absurd,” Marks said.

Lock said the Assemblies of God has received assurances from America’s Promise that the meeting will be a calm assembly.

America’s Promise, headed by Dave Barley, moved from Scottsdale, Ariz., to Sandpoint in 1991.

The group, which has about 50 members in Sandpoint, prints and sells pamphlets along with tape-recorded sermons that espouse their beliefs.

The group was denied membership in the Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce because their beliefs clashed with the chamber’s support for human rights.

, DataTimes MEMO: IDAHO HEADLINE: Mayor issues ‘Un-Welcome’ to America’s Promise camp