Realistic and telling
Faith, by Mary Ellen Humphrey, is a story surrounding a few young girls, coming of age, who seek out a better life by joining a church and submitting themselves completely to its vows, beliefs, and lifestyle. It’s a telling story, revealing the all-too-often sordid world of organized religions and cults, hidden behind a veil of sanctity, which demand ultimate faith and devotion, unquestioning allegiance, and acceptance of the utterances of its ecclesiastical hierarchy all at the expense of one’s personal certainty and self-esteem; and the slippery slope that such unchallengeable devotion can end one in a depressive state of entrapment. While this story by no means represents the totality of organized religion, one must remember that religion, by definition comes from Latin, religio – meaning supernatural constraint, sanction, religious practice, and perhaps going back to the word, religare, meaning, to restrain, tie back. This is not a fast-paced read or thriller, it is, however, pastorally brutal, because it shows the rather gruesome reality of life within the inner circles of a tight-fisted religious belief system. The story, when compared to countless narratives by apostates, those excommunicated by churches/cults, or those who simply left, is less fiction than fact.
Review by International Writers Inspiring Change



