In When Worlds Collide, Gene Heck challenges conventional wisdom that the introspective Wahhabi movement or classic Islamic doctrines are the root causes of modern Middle East terrorism. Instead, he persuasively argues that current regional unrest stems directly from internal perceptions of relative political and economic deprivation as well as from ad hoc abortive efforts by tunnel-visioned Western intelligence agencies to co-opt radical regional political-religious elements as opposing forces against other emerging global ideologies deemed more politically dangerous at the time. The greatest opportunity to neutralize these militant fringe element in turn, lies not in the imposition of Anglo-American democracy, but rather through reaching out to moderate allies who are the vast majority within the Islamic world, promoting self-determined governing systems, and creating constructive development programs that ensure a more equitable distribution of wealth to the economically disenfranchised to whom the extremist groups now appeal. Foreign policy analysts and decision makers, as well as scholars of both religion and Middle Eastern politics, will value Heck's detailed analysis.

An excerpt from God, Governance, and "Economic Man": "Yet to what end? Why does free speech protect the rights of child pornographers but not Christians? Since the First Amendment makes hostility to religion as unconstitutional as the establishment of a state religion, the overarching question becomes: Why is it a matter of federal juridical concern that someone might want to rejoice in the reality that: 'Christ the Savior is born?'" "Christmas-a seasonal event observed by many Americans-is just that, 'Christmas.' It is universally known for what it is-commemoration of the birth of Christ, not the Druids' winter solstice or the ancient Romans' saturnalia, both of which antedated it and whose parallels, if perpetuated, would render its celebration hollow. Happy solstice! Hail to winter!" "The crucial question thus becomes: don't counter-culturalists, the ACLU, and the courts have better things to do than to make would-be constitutional criminals out of tiny children whose only crime is that they want to sing Christmas carols? As one wag has most aptly described it: 'Perhaps the reason the ACLU is so jealous of manger scenes is that it has neither wise men nor virgins amongst its membership!'"