"Death Letter: God, Sex and War" Chaplain's Book Turned Into Movie

Veteran's story of his 'invisible wounds' to be made into movie in Pittsburgh 
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Janice Crompton
July 24, 2015

The book is called “Death Letter: God, Sex and War.” It is named after those just-in-case letters penned by every soldier to their loved ones before they head off to the front. It focuses on God, sex and war, “the three biggest mythologies of our imagination,” the chaplain said.

Erik Shaw and his wife Kristen. The couple married via live video satellite feed in 2005 after Mr. Shaw feared he would be killed in combat in Southern Baghdad. Just days earlier, he suffered a traumatic brain injury during a roadside improvised explosive device attack.

When Army Chaplain David Peters returned from active duty in Iraq nine years ago, he discovered that even though he no longer was living in the chaos of war, the battle within was just beginning.

Not long after he returned home, he got divorced ”and started serially dating and wondered, ’What is wrong with me?’ ”

But Rev. Peters realized that he had “to keep it together” for the wounded troops he was ministering to at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

The Bucks County native joined a writing program and tried to find answers to the challenges he was facing concerning religion, sexuality and relationships. While he found plenty of books about war and post-traumatic stress disorder, they glossed over the more intimate subjects of love and sex.

“I decided to write the book I needed to read,” he said. For Rev. Peters, the struggle represented “the invisible wounds I brought back with me.”

The book was published by Pittsburgh native and Army Sgt. 1st Class Erik Shaw, also an Iraq War veteran who started a publishing company as a way to help veterans with traumatic brain injuries and PTSD.
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