When "The Afterlife" appeared in Questions about Angels in 1991, the United States was just emerging from the Gulf War, which started with Operation Desert Storm on January 16, 1991. U.S. troops were sent to oust Iraq's army from Kuwait. The war lasted only forty-two days, and some estimate that more than 100,000 Iraqis were killed during this time.

America has always been a fertile breeding ground for religious groups, both mainstream and unconventional, some dangerous. Americans were again reminded of this fact in 1993 when the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, investigating claims of firearms violations, raided the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, killing six Davidians and losing four of their own agents in the process. The Davidians, whose origins are in the Seventh-day Adventist church, were led by Vernon Howell (also known as David Koresh), a charismatic polygamist who prophesied the end of the world...