Rape is a weapon of war

Refugee camp Kenya

“Rape is a weapon even more powerful than a bomb or a bullet… At least with a bullet, you die. But if you have been raped, you appear to the community like someone who is cursed. After rape, no one will talk to you. No man will see you. It’s a living death.”

Jeanna Mukuninwa

Aryn Baker’s disturbing report in TIME (April 18, 2016) is mental torture for anyone possessing at least an average amount of empathy and compassion. Instead of the dulling statistics sometimes—but not always— added to death tallies in war reports, Baker confronts us with real people who suffer horrors worse than death. Children and women, young and old, share the deep wounds of their souls accompanied by bodies that cannot be repaired, despite the work of dedicated physicians.

Any solution will involve changing the attitudes men hold toward women. Some efforts are directed to this goal according to Matthew Clark (CS Monitor).

Baker’s scenes take place in far flung places like the Congo. But we would be wrong to think that children and women in Europe, Asia, and the Americas are safe from male predators. The context of war has always unleashed the destructive powers of some men to a greater degree than others.

Women are traditional spoils of war.

There’s a long tradition that women are the spoils of war. Even the Bible illustrates the troubling attitudes toward women (e.g., Judges 21:10-24; Numbers 31:7-18). The rape of Europe by Nazi and Soviet troops is well known (Telegraph, 2015). But they are not the only offenders. And the topic is controversial and the number contested (NBC).

As Mary Louise Roberts writes in What Soldiers Do, U.S. brothels were set up in France to provide an organized way for GIs to have sex within a month of the D-Day invasion. She quotes Patton’s infamous phrase, “if they don’t f**k, they don’t fight.” She opined, “In the army officer’s view, the necessarily complete command of the GI’s body gave them dominion over the French woman’s body as well.” (See pp. 159-160; Also, NPR story).

The point of including Robert’s book is not to equate the sexual exploitation of French women by U S soldiers to the horrors of the women in Baker’s story. The point is to show that male warriors have a long history of destroying women’s lives—often leaving them with a fate worse than death.

Also, sad to say, even peacekeepers have been accused of raping girls (NY Daily News, 2016).

Who provides services?

Christians are not divided about the evils of rape. Nor do they refrain from offering care and support in an effort to bridge the chasm between victim and survivor. But Christians are divided about some aspects of care. As you probably know, Christians are divided over birth control and abortion. The divides make a difference in who gets what type of care in refugee camps and clinics in war torn areas. That said, Christian organizations are present and providing services to highly traumatized and fragile people.

  

Read more about Sex-related morality in A House Divided

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