Rape Is God's Will

The Republican Party has long been regarded as anti-woman. After all, it was far-right hero Rush Limbaugh who coined the term "feminazi" to describe those women who dared violate his archaic view of gender roles. I suppose it was inevitable that the party would become anti-woman as soon as they adopted Christian extremism and began to work to strip women of basic reproductive rights. And yet, the vile anti-woman agenda of the Republican Party and their Christian extremist colleagues still catches me off guard at times.

I suspect you've already heard about the lawsuit a retired Sergeant brought against the Pentagon after she was sexually assaulted while serving in Afghanistan. According to Sergeant Havrilla's lawsuit, she sought help from a military chaplain after she encountered a fellow soldier who had raped her a few years earlier. According to the lawsuit,

When SGT Havrilla met with the military chaplain, he told her that 'it must have been God's will for her to be raped' and recommended that she attend church more frequently.

Wow! I've read this quote over and over, and it still makes me feel ill. By itself, it could be dismissed as an isolated bit of craziness; however, when we consider it in the broader context of what is starting to look like a Republican war on women, it becomes much harder to ignore.