Woman tells Army Chaplain about her rape, is told the rape was God’s will and that "God was trying to get her attention" so that she "would go back to church.”

Army Sgt. Rebekah Havrilla. Proof positive that having access to guns will not prevent rape.

Courtesy of Army Times:  

Former Army Sgt. Rebekah Havrilla told the military personnel subcommittee she delayed filing formal charges for an alleged rape by a fellow soldier in Afghanistan because she did not trust the system, and that after she finally reported it nothing happened. 

“The military criminal justice system is broken,” she said. “I feared retaliation before and after I reported, the investigative process severely re-traumatized me, many of the institutional systems set up to help failed me miserably, my perpetrator went unpunished despite admitting to a crime, and commanders were never held accountable for making the choice to do nothing,” Havrilla said. 

Havrilla was an explosive ordnance technician deployed to Afghanistan as part of Taskforce Paladin when she allegedly was raped in 2007 by another service member about one week before the deployment ended. 

“Initially, I chose not to do a report of any kind because I had no faith in my chain of command,” she said. Her reluctance was based, in part, on the fact that her first sergeant had been accused of sexual harassment “and the unit climate was extremely sexist and hostile in nature towards women.” 

She filed an informal complaint before leaving active duty “but had no intentions of ever doing a formal investigation.” Havrilla said she saw her rapist again in 2009, about a year after she separated at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., while on reserve duty. “He recognized me and told me that he was stationed on the same installation. I was so re-traumatized from the unexpectedness of seeing him that I removed myself from training.” 

Havrilla said she sought help from an Army chaplain “who told me — among other things — that the rape was God’s will and that God was trying to get my attention so that I would go back to church.” 

She did not name the chaplain but said his comments convinced her to still not report the alleged rape. 

She finally reported it after a friend told her the accused rapist had posted photographs of her, taken during the rape, on the Internet. “I felt that my rape was always going to haunt me unless I did something about it,” she said, so she reported it to Army authorities.

"The rape was God’s will and that God was trying to get my attention so that I would go back to church." Apparently the God that this asshole worships is one that is willing to brutalize women in order to increase church attendance.

And people wonder why women, especially those in the military, are so hesitant to report their rapes to the authorities.

I am completely sickened by this.