REDDING, California — With anti-Mormon attacks threatening the faith of some Mormons, a volunteer organization offers timely help by answering critical charges in a faithful manner. Their latest effort is a new book aimed at helping believers defuse faith-shaking claims.

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign and the polygamous followers of non-Mormon Warren Jeffs are just two recent events that have drawn negative and often unfair media attention to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Adding to the confusion are Internet sites that target Mormons in the hope of creating doubt and disillusionment through a selective presentation of the evidence. Accordingly, some believers — unaware that faith-shaking claims have been answered time and again — have abandoned their former religions convictions.

Shaken-Faith Syndrome provides answers to several of the most popular LDS-critical arguments, and examines the underlying misconceptions that contribute to deconversion.

The late LDS Apostle Neal A. Maxwell expressed concern that critics shouldn't be allowed to make "uncontested slam-dunks." In 1997, the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR) — a volunteer organization — was established to take that advice seriously.