{"id":39271,"date":"2018-05-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/patrick-stewart-now-understands-his-fathers-ptsd\/"},"modified":"2018-05-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-05-07T00:00:00","slug":"patrick-stewart-now-understands-his-fathers-ptsd","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/patrick-stewart-now-understands-his-fathers-ptsd\/","title":{"rendered":"Patrick Stewart Now Understands His Father&#8217;s PTSD"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Patrick Stewart, the British-born actor and star of the <em class=\"citation\">X-Men<\/em> films, spent much of his boyhood stepping between his mother and his abusive, alcoholic father, Alfred Stewart. The turmoil dictated Stewart&#39;s childhood, and like many children of alcoholics, he became a &quot;the perfect son.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>But in 2007, Stewart began investigating his dad&#39;s life and was surprised to discover a clipping from the local paper heralding his father&#39;s return in 1940, and mentioning in a brief aside that he was suffering from severe shell shock. Then Stewart made a trip to France where he found that his father&#39;s army unit had been rushed to the front as the Germans slashed through France. Alfred Stewart and his men were caught between a marsh and a bridge, pinned down by bombing for hours. The train conductor uncoupled the engine and drove away, leaving the troops stranded.<\/p>\n\n<p>Stewart and his men spent the next month on the run from the Germans before being evacuated. Then, despite his shell-shocked status, Alfred Stewart volunteered for the paratroopers. During August 1944 he played a significant role in the liberation of the country he had watched crumble four years earlier.<\/p>\n\n<p>Patrick Stewart, who knew nothing about his father&#39;s military heroism and agony, said, &quot;I was brought face-to-face with the knowledge that he was a man with experiences I was unaware of &hellip; There were reasons why he was an alcoholic and depressed at times. I&#39;ve talked to people who understand post-traumatic stress disorder and described my father&#39;s behavior, and they&#39;ve said, &#39;Absolutely classic PTSD behavior! No doubt about it.&#39;&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>After hearing the real story of his father&#39;s life, Patrick said, &quot;My anger toward him was dissolving anyway.&quot;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3499,3648,3857,3967,3971,4106,4179,4256,4311,4672,4777,4810,5086,5208],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-39271","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-bitterness","tax_ctp_tags-compassion","tax_ctp_tags-empathy","tax_ctp_tags-fathers-day","tax_ctp_tags-fathers","tax_ctp_tags-grudges","tax_ctp_tags-human-forgiveness","tax_ctp_tags-insight","tax_ctp_tags-judging-others","tax_ctp_tags-power-of-love","tax_ctp_tags-reconciliation","tax_ctp_tags-resentment","tax_ctp_tags-stress","tax_ctp_tags-understanding"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Patrick Stewart Now Understands His Father&#039;s PTSD - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/patrick-stewart-now-understands-his-fathers-ptsd\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Patrick Stewart Now Understands His Father&#039;s PTSD - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Patrick Stewart, the British-born actor and star of the X-Men films, spent much of his boyhood stepping between his mother and his abusive, alcoholic father, Alfred Stewart. The turmoil dictated Stewart&#039;s childhood, and like many children of alcoholics, he became a &quot;the perfect son.&quot; But in 2007, Stewart began investigating his dad&#039;s life and was Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/patrick-stewart-now-understands-his-fathers-ptsd\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/patrick-stewart-now-understands-his-fathers-ptsd\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/patrick-stewart-now-understands-his-fathers-ptsd\/\",\"name\":\"Patrick Stewart Now Understands His Father's PTSD - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-05-07T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-05-07T00:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/patrick-stewart-now-understands-his-fathers-ptsd\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/patrick-stewart-now-understands-his-fathers-ptsd\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/patrick-stewart-now-understands-his-fathers-ptsd\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Patrick Stewart Now Understands His Father&#8217;s PTSD\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Patrick Stewart Now Understands His Father's PTSD - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/patrick-stewart-now-understands-his-fathers-ptsd\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Patrick Stewart Now Understands His Father's PTSD - CT Pastors","og_description":"Patrick Stewart, the British-born actor and star of the X-Men films, spent much of his boyhood stepping between his mother and his abusive, alcoholic father, Alfred Stewart. 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