It is trust, or belief in things unseen, like faith in Jesus Christ, or trust in a religion like Mormonism, or to be more exact, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is a church predicated on faith because so much of Mormonism that purports to be fact has been challenged by science with embarrassing results. Ultimate faith is continuing to believe even though facts say its false.

Faith and belief go hand in hand and is sometime confused with hope. For example: I have no faith in any organized religion, yet I believe in a supreme essence or God, a something or someone who put together the rotation of stars, planets and the ecological order we see on earth. When it comes to God, I dare not take the word of any religion because of the duplicity, myth, corruption and deception that can be found in all major religions.

There are many social redeeming values in most Christian religions but I know of no religion that can save me, or guarantee my exaltation. Although I have little faith, I have lots of hope, especially in life after death. I hope to meet loved ones on the other side. I hope that on the other side I will find the answers to a lot of questions. I hope there will be truth and justice on the other side because with earthly religions, as well as politics, power and ego supersedes truth and justice.

I am inclined to follow the example of our founding fathers - Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and the wisdom of Thomas Paine - all of whom were deists - but believed mankind needed a religion as added moral incentive to choose good over evil.

It is an act of faith for one to belief that the "spirit" of God, or a spirit like the Holy Ghost, communicates and inspires men? Some Mormon fundamentalists are so infatuated with the principle of "spirit" that they have more faith in the "spirit" even though it is contradicted by fact.

During my adventure in polygamy, I have often seen how a man’s wants can influence his faith. Fore example: Men have faith in Mormonism and Joseph Smith because they want plural marriage to be a true principle.

Some men have faith in the mainstream LDS Church because all their family and friends believe its true and because the Church provides a clean wholesome environment in which to raise children. Other people have faith in the Church because of political advantage and job security and because they like the power this association can bring with it.

Faith is influenced by unity and sense of security. Some men, especially fundamentalist men, are faithful because they like the idea of having plural wives in the celestial kingdom, and in the next life will become a god and ruler of men.

I suppose I am a pessimist or skeptic when it comes to faith. I have seen to many men in the Allred Group bear a testimony of undying faith, but when they get their belly full of deceit and corruption, integrity kicks in and they apostatize.

The LDS Church concept of faith can be found in the statement, "Faith Promoting." "Faith promoting" means thinking only that - speaking only that - and reading only that which promotes the LDS Church agenda, which is worldwide domination in preparation for the Second Coming. "Faith promoting" is a clever way of censoring books like John D. Lee’s Confessions, and Will Bagley’s Blood of the Prophets, and of course, my books, which do not sanitize the dark side of Mormonism.

So you see, faith can be an implement of control, or be a word pretenders use to convince others they are devout. Even though I have no doubt that there are good people in all branches of "Mormonism" who really, truthfully exercise faith, I think they represent a small minority .

A public display of deep faith tends to disarm prospective converts/victims. Unscrupulous priests and prophets use faith to break down the inhibitions of followers to bring a man around to full faith and then rape that faith by taking from him everything he holds dear (his wives, daughters, inheritance, life savings) including his self respect. This is the worst kind of chicanery and is a frequent happening in the bizarre world of Mormon fundamentalism.