wfn.org | United Methodist pastor found guilty of SOA trespass

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

March 15, 2000 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-32-71B{145}

By United Methodist News Service

A retired United Methodist pastor has been found guilty of violating a ban
barring protestors from entering the U.S. Army School of the Americas at
Fort Benning in Columbus, Ga.

The Rev. Charles Butler, 73, of Rochester, Minn., was one of nine defendants
found guilty March 10 by U.S. District Court Judge Hugh Lawson. Sentencing
has yet to be imposed, but the defendants face up to six months in federal
prison and a $5,000 fine.

The nine had been among the 12,000 protestors who gathered at the gates of
Fort Benning last November to call for the school's closing. The 53-year-old
School of the Americas - which trains 900 to 2,000 soldiers annually - has
been under fire for its connection with human rights abuses allegedly
perpetuated by its graduates.

In May of 1998, the United Methodist Council of Bishops passed a resolution
urging President Clinton and Congress to close the School of the Americas as
an act of solidarity with the poor and marginalized of Latin America. After
hearing testimony from Latino constituents, the bishops had concluded that
the school "is perceived by the marginalized to be a source of oppression
and a symbol of violence."

Last July, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 230-197 to cut funding to
the school, but the measure did not proceed. Another vote is expected later
this year.

Butler actually served at Fort Benning when he was in the U.S. Army from
1945-46. Later, he spent 25 years as a missionary in Panama before returning
to the United States in 1978. During that period, the School of Americas was
based in Panama - it moved to Fort Benning in 1985 - but Butler said he
didn't know much about it.

His interest in the controversy surrounding the school came much later,
after hearing the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, the founder of SOA Watch, an
organization calling for the dismantling of the school, speak in 1997.
Butler, who had participated in a number of mission trips to Central America
after leaving Panama, already was displeased about U.S. government policies
and activities in those countries and the suffering he believed it caused. 

"In a sense, it's been another conversion experience," Butler said about his
commitment to closing the School of the Americas.

The pastor trespassed for the first time during the SOA Watch annual protest
at Fort Benning in November 1997, then returned in 1998 "with the prospects
of going to jail." But because of the large number of protestors, that did
not occur.

Last November, Butler was one of an organized group of 65 "high risk"
protestors whose actions stood out from the crowd. Wearing black shrouds and
death masks, this group squirted washable paint - resembling blood - on
themselves and fell into caskets. It was a way of marking the 10th
anniversary of the murder of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her
daughter in El Salvador, as well as the many others believed to have been
killed or "disappeared" by SOA graduates.

Eventually, 9 of the 65 were brought to trial on March 10. Butler said he
felt the judge, who let everyone speak, was impressed by what they had to
say. Sentencing is expected in early April and he hopes to be assigned to
the federal medical center in Rochester, where he has worked in the past as
a Hispanic chaplain.

Whatever the sentence, the retired pastor of the United Methodist Minnesota
Conference does not regret his actions. "In a strong sense, this is what God
wanted me to do," he declared.

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United Methodist News Service
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