MY FATHER, MY WAR, MY WITNESS: A PASTORAL WITNESS IN A TIME OF WAR

A son of Vietnam. A veteran of Desert Storm. A pastor asking what the church must say in a time of war.In My Father, My War, My Witness, Sargent R. Nelson offers a deeply personal and pastoral reflection on war, memory, service, grief, and Christian moral witness.Born in Winnfield, Louisiana, in September 1967, Nelson entered the world only months before his father, George W. Nelson, was killed in Vietnam. That absence shaped his childhood, his understanding of manhood, and his lifelong questions about what war takes from families long after the battlefield falls silent.Years later, Nelson would face war from another side as a U.S. Air Force veteran of Desert Storm, leaving behind his wife and young son without knowing whether he would return. His father’s war and his own war became part of a larger calling: to ask how Christians can honor those who serve without worshiping war, and how the church can recover its moral voice when public life is shaped by fear, spectacle, nationalism, and silence.Blending memoir, theology, pastoral reflection, and public witness, Nelson draws on voices such as Martin Luther King Jr., Howard Thurman, Desmond Tutu, John Wesley, Dorothy Day, Walter Brueggemann, Willie James Jennings, and Oscar Romero. He writes with tenderness toward veterans and military families, gratitude for the church that helped raise him, and urgency for clergy and congregations tempted to remain quiet when moral leadership is needed most.This is not a policy book. It is a witness.It is for pastors, veterans, military families, church leaders, and readers who believe Christian faith must speak with courage, compassion, and truth in an age of war.With a foreword by Chaplain Bennie R. Liggins, LtCol, USAF (retired). Read more