Mary put her briefcase on the floor beside her as she looked out of the window of the train. Another passenger (Randall) put an identical briefcase on the rack above the seat across from where Mary and her daughters were sleeping. Then the man rushed off to the restroom. The train made a jerking motion as it took off and Randall’s briefcase fell to the floor across where Mary was sitting. Mary’s briefcase moved further down. Mary heard the noise and turned to notice the briefcase next to her and picked it up and placed it between the seats next to her. “That was quite a jolt,” Mary said as she picked up the briefcase not knowing it wasn’t hers. When Randall, a drug dealer returned to his seat, he panicked until he saw a briefcase two seats back. Randall’s briefcase now has a Bible and notebook and Mary’s briefcase is now filled with seven million dollars.

Winner, 2014 Distinguished Contribution to Research Award presented by the Latina/o Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association Los Angeles is the epicenter of the American gang problem. Rituals and customs from Los Angeles’ eastside gangs, including hand signals, graffiti, and clothing styles, have spread to small towns and big cities alike. Many see the problem with gangs as related to urban marginality—for a Latino immigrant population struggling with poverty and social integration, gangs offer a close-knit community. Yet, as Edward Orozco Flores argues in God’s Gangs, gang members can be successfully redirected out of gangs through efforts that change the context in which they find themselves, as well as their notions of what it means to be a man. Flores here illuminates how Latino men recover from gang life through involvement in urban, faith-based organizations. Drawing on participant observation and interviews with Homeboy Industries, a Jesuit-founded non-profit that is one of the largest gang intervention programs in the country, and with Victory Outreach, a Pentecostal ministry with over 600 chapters, Flores demonstrates that organizations such as these facilitate recovery from gang life by enabling gang members to reinvent themselves as family men and as members of their community. The book offers a window into the process of redefining masculinity. As Flores convincingly shows, gang members are not trapped in a cycle of poverty and marginality. With the help of urban ministries, such men construct a reformed barrio masculinity to distance themselves from gang life.

Trapped by Gangs, Rescued by God: Escaping Gang Life is a true-life account of A.V. Strong, Jr. As you read his story you will find how he willfully chooses a life of mischievous behavior as a young child to wake up to the realities of his choices. You will find how the power of a mother's love and a father's godly words helped provoke their child to become something more than a gang banger. You will read about the pain Strong suffered due to his decisions to play with those who played with death. The faith instilled in Strong as a youngster grew in him as he had to pull on that faith to go forward in life and become an upstanding citizen and mentor. His successes are a result of God in his life combined with the willingness to change.

Adrienne L. Miller is a devout Christian who loves the Lord. Though her relationships, her environments, and her life experiences, often conflicts with her spiritual upbringing and her wanting to live her life for Christ, she still manages to maintain her Christian walk with God. After God delivered her from the many dangers, toils, and snares of the enemy, God put it on her heart to share with the world the reason for the hope that lies within her through her testimonial book, 'Misery Loves Company, but God Loves Us More." By sharing her testimony with others, Adrienne wants people to know that it doesn't matter what you've been, or are going through, God is able to keep those who are committed unto Him. This is Adrienne's debut book and prayerfully the beginning of many more to come. Adrienne's been working in the field of Education for over 25 years and has acquired many teaching styles and techniques from hands on educational work experiences. She has an AAS degree in Computer Science and is thirty credit hours away from her B.S. Degree in Business Administration. Under the tutorledge of her pastor and first lady, Adrienne gains knowledge from regularly studying and receiving spiritual training of the bible and applying its principles to her own existence. Adrienne L. M. A. Miller is a native Chicagoan who currently resides in Sauk Village, IL, with her daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter, and occasionally her step grandson. She's the middle child of a family of fifteen. She's currently working as a Teacher's Assistant in a suburban public school district. If God is willing, she's looking forward to retiring from the work force in the near future and focusing more on working to help build God's kingdom.

A Jesuit priest and founder of Homeboy Industries traces his experiences of working with gangs in Los Angeles for three decades, sharing what his efforts have taught him about faith, compassion, and the enduring power of radical kinship.

Using the tools of sociological theory, Robert Brenneman seeks to discover why a pot-smoking, gun-wielding "homie" gang member would want to trade in la vida loca for a Bible and the buttoned-down lifestyle of an evangelical hermano (brother in Christ) - and to what extent this strategy works for the many youth who have tried it.

Godon McLean tells how gang members have been changed through the truths of Jesus Christ and the impact of Christ's love. From the rough barrios of L.A. to the war zone of Chicago's West Side, McLean carried God's message to whoever would listen.

Gangster to God is an incredible true life story and testimony of Love and Grace, filled with incredible miracles only God could have set in motion. After enduring years of tragedy, drug addiction and finally a life sentence in prison, suicide seemed the only option for this man when God intervened and through overwhelming odds, his life was turned around and completely changed forever by The Love Of Jesus Christ.

Reinterpretations of key Bible texts related to sexual orientation, written by a Harvard student, present an accessible case for a modern Christian conservative acceptance of sexual diversity.

Who looks outside dreams, who looks inside awakes. (Jung) Gods Gangsters Is a short story of 13,500 words that takes place over a three day period, in the life of a sixteen year old African American drug dealer and gang member, Walter Butz. Walter was raised by very religious parents, who believe in a literal translation of the Bible. This narrow religious view completely turns him off to any belief in God. After the death of his father, a clergyman, he falls in with his brother-in-law, a gang leader and drug dealer in Brooklyn. It is after being shot by rival gang members; the young Walter is wounded, and begins a Journey or realization that there is a deeper side to being human, a spiritual side. With the help of a few guldes along the way, he is able to alter his perception of reality, and in this truer light, change his life. Imagination is more important than knowledge, is a quote from Albert Einstein. Considered a cerebrell, logical, calculating, conscous intellect, there was also another side to his thinking. The feeling, instinctive, intuitive subconscious, the source of a higher consciousness. This is a story of rediscovery of a greater self; we are all part of.