Chaplain is a psychopath, plain and simple. A wolf in sheep's clothing. That his station is as a Man of Faith is disturbing, but more for shock value than anything else.

So tie this back to the Catholic Church and Priest sex scandals. Everyone knows these Priests were scum, and deserved to be punished. But even greater contempt was held in the public arena towards the Catholic Church for covering up and not immediately holding pedophile Priests accountable. How is this different? The Chaplain is a scumbag, and should be dealt with accordingly. But he's first and foremost a representative of the US Military. How can the overseeing body not be held accountable for lack of action?

Show the quote in which I said you defended the chaplain's behavior. Be specific.

I do not disagree. It is not possible to determine what actual effect his beliefs had on his response.

RLK was desperately trying to say "everybody made mistakes. Don't highlight just the religious error. Let's call it a wash and don't talk about it". Well, this is a religion forum and you have to highlight these things as there's a good chance someone else will get a similar response next time from that chaplain and others with his views.

I also like how he claimed that atheists were involved too and that they failed. Of course, even if this were true, they would not have failed because of their atheism but rather because of something else. The chaplain's fail was a direct result of his religiosity.

Then he asks ME "How can you even pretend to yourself that you are a rational person?"

lol rgt
lol rlk

The reason it is deserving of ridicule is that it is the Chaplain's religious beliefs that caused him to think that that was an appropriate response to the situation.

Nope I only read what was posted. There may have been other comments deserving of ridicule as well for all I know.

My point is that a man responded to a situation poorly because his religious beliefs told him that that was the appropriate way to respond.

His insensitivity and sexism may be caused or justified by his religion. At the very least, if both of them were not anyhow affected by religion, in the absence of faith he would have had to come up with a different rationale for it, which might have led him to reevaluate.

Btw, are you implying that religion isn't a possible cause/justification for sexism?

I disagree. I really do not see how one could claim that the response 'it must have been the will of God that you were raped' can be seen as anything other than a direct result of his religious beliefs. I see absolutely no reason to claim that the way this man responded was somehow a result of something other than his religious beliefs. Do you, for some reason, think he was being dishonest when he said what he said? Because to me it reads as if this man meant what he said, and believed it when he said it. And the reason he believed it is because of his religious worldview.

It doesn't matter whether he believed it. What's at issue is that he was a dick to the woman and refused to offer her any kind of assistance in a time of crisis.

If we assume he really believed that, it doesn't change anything. The appropriate course of action doesn't change depending on whether it was God's will. The chaplain was negligent in his duties, and there's no real indication whether that negligence was attributable to his religious views.

Where did he conclude that religion causes the problem? He's not discussing the rape or what the military did as that wouldn't have any relevence to a thread on religion. He's discussing specifically a response by a religious minister. Hence its place in this forum.

that's not true. There could be a God who doesn't impose his will on man.

I don't know if this is necessarily true. To a religious person, they may take comfort in the fact that tragedy is all part of God's plan. So while we non-religious people find this laughable, I concede that if I were a man of faith I might see it differently.

Let's face it, "god's will" is regularly used by many religious people when dealing with or explaining tragic events.

I have my doubts the military chaplin told her it was God's will she was raped.

Sure. I meant given the chaplain's beliefs on the topic. Any other response on his part would in some contexts be dismissed by most atheists as handwaving away the implications of his beliefs.

lol

oh no he didn't

It certainly does matter if we are trying to figure out why he thought it was appropriate to act the way he did.

Of course it changes something. It allows us to consider that his religious beliefs were what caused him to think that his reaction was appropriate. But if we assume that he did not really believe it then that also changes something: we know his religious beliefs were not what caused him to think that his reaction was appropriate.

We all agree that his reaction was inappropriate. What is at issue is why he thought it was appropriate. In this case, it was his religious beliefs. This is an example of the harm that religion causes.

Why do you think it is funny?

The alledged comment is something I would not expect a chaplin to say. The chaplin's side of the story is unknown to us so we are not in any position to make a real judgement one way or the other.

However what is comical is how so many on here believe just because an accusation is made in a legal pleading that it must be true. You guys are niave.

I also suspect that he likely sugar coated it a bit more than just flat out saying 'it was God's will that you were raped.'

Well there is obviously a lot more context than the article or the complaint gives us....I just find is ludicris that people ignore that and suck this in hook line and sinker.

The chaplin may be a douche bag but anyone who comes to that conclusion by just examining the complaint is a moran. If complaints were actual and complete representations of all the facts we would have no need for trials.

Well, this happened in 2009 and it became public 4 days ago. If she's lying about what the chaplin said, I'm sure he'd come out and give his story. Until then, give her the benefit of doubt and assume she's not lying.

Even if she believes he said it, it doesn't mean he actually said it. People misunderstand things all the time.

Also don't expect the chaplin to make any public comments. His lawyer probably told the chaplin not to say anything.

If what you think is true, then I'm sure the chaplain will come out and clear his name. Until then, stop assuming things.

I mean, you have no basis for saying this, and it's obvious that you would prefer to believe that he just didn't say it.

The whole point is that you wouldn't expect a chaplain to be that much of an *******. That's not a good reason to disbelieve it. But please, inform me on the realities of legal pleadings, I definitely need a quick breakdown from you.

Sorry but you are wrong. I simply don't care about the plight of this chaplain or his accusor. I have other things to worry about.

But what is obvious is that you prefer that the chaplain did say the things he is accused of saying as evidenced by your immeadiate decision to accept an unsubstantiated accusation as gospel truth.