Rock Beyond Belief You may have seen Jon Stewart speak about the insanity from Fox News personality Liz Trotta. It was brutal. He championed the natural facepalm reaction to her comments in a glorious way. It was funny, but it still made you want to cry, or scream. I actually yelled at my TV.
Reap has an article from last year that noticed the trend.
Representative Jackie Speier, who also told the House of Representatives in Feb the story about her abortion while they decided whether to de-fund planned parenthood, made a statement about rapes in the military. In her speech the following points were made-
- Women in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by fellow soldiers than killed by enemy fire.
- One victim was lectured by the base chaplain, who claimed that 96 percent of sexual assaults on women occur when drinking is involved. The victim had not been drinking.
- In another case after seeking the assistance of the military chaplain, he told her “it must have been God’s will for her to be raped” and recommended she attend church more frequently.
- The Department of Defense estimates that more than 19,000 service members were raped or sexually assaulted in 2010.
- Only 13.5 percent of the victims report when they have been raped.
I don’t know about you but when I read this my response was “What the fuck?!” Estimated 19,000??
19,000? How could this possibly be going on? I have no idea how this could be allowed to go on and people are not outraged. I hope Jackie can get something done about it. Maybe she will have better luck than she did with the planned-parenthood deal. The way it’s been going the fucking Republicans will probably vote to open more churches on military bases, after all the chaplain said to “attend more church services”
Now if anyone ever wonders why I feel like it is important to speak out against organized religion, this is a good example.
I’ve heard that there are some issues with exactly how ‘rape / sexual assault’ numbers were calculated for that study. But still the metrics are rising, no matter which set of definitions you use… (‘unwanted sexual contact including smack on the ass?’ etc… all rising.)
The fact of the matter is that funds for sexual assault prevention and response efforts are a drop in the bucket when compared to the amount of money spent on evangelizing and proselytizing soldiers and their children. And I’m NOT talking about the chaplaincy at all – I’m talking about no-bid contracts to CIVILIANS and third-party religious organizations!
With that in mind, it’s clear to see that rape is not treated with the same level of support as actively attempting to convert military members to Christianity. I’ve got an idea on how to fund a program that really works – perhaps slash the budget of ‘spiritual fitness’ initiatives. Fraud, waste, and abuse. And when we clearly need real-world support for male and female soldiers that are raped.
This is depressing.
