Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ topped box office charts and changed the American religious conversation. The controversies it raised remain unsettled. In After The Passion Is Gone: American Religious Consequences, leading scholars of religion and theology ask what Gibson's film and the resulting controversy reveal about Christians, Jews, and the possibilities of interreligious dialogue in the United States. Landres and Berenbaum's collection moves beyond questions of whether or not the film was faithful to the gospels, too violent, or antisemitic and explores why the debate focused on these issues but not others. The public discussion of The Passion shed light on a wide range of American attitudes evangelical Protestant, mainline Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Jewish about media and faith, politics and history, Jesus and Judaism, fundamentalism and victimhood. After The Passion Is Gone takes a unique view of vital points in Christian-Jewish relations and contemporary American religion.

Sam James, Thortons Police Chief, finds himself in another precarious situation as he tries to track down what seems to simply be a local drug dealer missing from his court hearing. Only beginning to question the dealer's family, Sam narrowly misses being shot while in a high speed car chase. Once again, the bodies begin to pile up as Sam continues to dig into the insidious evil that seems to be overtaking his town. With no apparent connection, drug dealers and prostitutes are being shot and left on the street. In the midst of this turmoil, Sam reaches out to help those wanting to turn their life around. Chained to their chosen lifestyle that places them in relentless despair and danger, Sam points them toward those in his beloved Thorton with a heart of helping and hope as his. As the number of murders continues to grow, so does the suspect list. He finds himself more and more confused as the people on the suspect list grows shorter. Anyone remotely connected to the murders is being relentlessly killed. Yet another dangerous situation arises as the tangled investigation proceeds. Believing the main dealer to be murdered by their own hands, the once employees want a bigger piece of the pie. He is back and ready for revenge. The dealer immediately begins to eliminate his former employees and anyone so bold as to buy from his competitors.

The federal government has bitten off more medical, social and retirement programs than it can chew and will be in fiscal hot water before long. This book attempts to accomplish three things: Besides suggesting a way to cope with the federal government's enormous financial obligations and ways to improve the producer/eater ratio, it also outlines a way for ordinary American people to nominate and elect government officials who will be more responsive to people than they are today. The book is replete with thoughts about what to do and how to do it. None of the solutions proposed is really novel, but most of them do involve a significant departure from the way things are done today. Some of the ideas propounded can be implemented at this time. Others cannot and must await the proper economic, political, and social climate, but I have set them out, nonetheless, so that when the time does come - as it surely will - they will be available for anyone who believes they have merit. If nothing else, I hope they will inspire the commencement of some fresh thinking in these areas by others. The obstacles to making the changes are admittedly colossal, but the task is not impossible. It requires merely a widespread effort by ordinary people with focus and perseverance.