Authors Larry and Chuck Bates of IRN USA Radio News arm readers with advice on how to handle the economic, political and religious storms America faces, in A Nation in Crisis: The Meltdown of Money, Government, and Religion (978-1-616-38148-6, $22.99, hardcover), released this month from FrontLine, an imprint of Strang Book Group.

The authors—who say they are not “doom and gloomers”—offer their assessment of American financial, political and religious institutions, but say, “life as we have known it in the United States is about to change, and change drastically.”

“We really believe you can position yourself for great financial opportunity, but you can also get your family and yourself out of harm’s way and turn the chaos into blessing for yourself and others,” they write in the book’s introduction.

Working from backgrounds in economics, banking and government, the authors offer an analysis of the state of America’s financial institutions, blaming the economic meltdown on five forces—a major banking crisis, federal debt and deficits, business and personal loans, recession and depression, and major inflation—and call on readers to build a “financial ark.”

The authors also consider government and what its role is and should be. They explain the ways the government taxes its citizens and what effect the economic stimulus has.

In matters of faith, they show how the church can fill the gap for fatherless families and discuss public education.

Former bank executive Larry Bates is publisher and editor of Monetary and Economic Review, and a former member of the Tennessee House of Representatives.

Economist Chuck Bates is executive vice president and news director of IRN USA Radio News; he previously served as an assistant in the White House Office of Political Affairs.