Christian author's eletter to Grieving Protest Mother

Best-selling Charisma House author Stephen Mansfield, who recently wrote The Faith of the American Soldier and the New York Times best-seller, The Faith of George W. Bush, is drawing national media attention for writing “an open letter” to the mother of a slain soldier who has kept a vigil outside President Bush's home in Crawford, Texas, this month to protest the war in Iraq.

On Aug. 16, Mansfield posted a 502-word letter to Cindy Sheehan on his blog, www.mansfieldgroup.com . Sheehan, whose son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, was killed in Iraq in April 2004, has generated a media firestorm since Aug. 6, when she camped outside Bush's ranch in hopes of meeting with him.

Mansfield, who read his letter to Sheehan on National Public Radio's All Things Considered last Thursday, said he does not want to diminish her grief, but he is concerned that she is detracting the heroic death of her son through her demonstration.