Remembering Dean Nelson

In the wake of sudden loss, it’s hard to find words for your grief—or to describe the person lost. But in the case of Rev. Dean Nelson, my colleague and friend who passed away on Dec. 16, one word rises to the surface. Dean was irreplaceable.

He was a man God used to accomplish tremendous good in the world. He was a kind man with a burning, passionate desire to see justice done for all. He spoke boldly but gently in the face of great, daunting injustices.

He fought tirelessly for the lives of children in the womb, and for the comfort and aid of their mothers. He constantly reached out to others to build coalitions and recruit even more leaders into the pro-life movement from different churches and communities, especially in the black community.

Looking back on my friendship and work with him, it’s difficult to choose a single story to tell, other than the story of his life as a whole. It’s only in the totality of his life, his work, and his person that we see just how extraordinary he was.

His deep wisdom would be easy to miss for those who never had a chance to know him personally, but it was one of his most important characteristics. He knew people because he loved them. He understood them because he loved them well.

Dean embodied Christ in a way few men do. He dedicated his entire life to building relationships that honored Christ and honored the people he chose to be his friends. If you met a friend of Dean’s, you knew they were special. You knew they could be trusted—all because of who Dean was.

Despite all of this, Dean was unfailingly humble. His many achievements never wrested his attention away from love of his family and commitment to his missions.

He spoke always with pride and warmth of his wife Julia Nelson and their three children. He demonstrated a servant’s heart as chairman of both the Douglass Leadership Institute and Frederick Douglass Foundation and as my colleague, the vice president of government relations at Human Coalition. He was a patriot in the truest sense, a man who loved the people in our country and sought to improve their lives.

He acquired and deftly wielded formidable knowledge of the many realms he sought to influence: Legislation, theology, the pro-life movement, church communities of various cultures and denominations, horse-race politics, community reform and history—just to name a few.

But for all this complexity, in some sense, to know him at all was to know him completely. He was the same person wherever he went, and couldn’t help but be so.

“The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks,” reads Luke 6:45.

Dean spoke from the abundance of his heart, and it was very good.

An important part of his impact, though, was his special pursuit of unity. He sought to build bridges. He was patient even in disagreements. He honored his opponents and sought to make them his friends.

He was a model for the pro-life movement, and his departure leaves a tremendous gap in our ranks. If we pro-lifers learn anything from his life, it should be this: More is accomplished through seeking unity than sowing division.

In the words of Frederick Douglass, “I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.”

We ought to follow Dean in following Douglass. Dean showed us that it’s possible. It’s left to us, now, to do it.

Editor’s note: Dean Nelson was a contributor to WORLD Opinions and we greatly valued his contributions. We appreciate this tribute from his colleague Jeff Bradford and pray for God’s mercy and blessings to Dean’s family.