In the campus newspaper, a student columnist writing on Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ celebrated the importance of quasi-religious faith in a brighter future, and quoted Confucius' "Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles." Yet as one sees from the original context of James Legge's translation of 1:8, 忠信 doesn't mean religious faith 忠 and sincerity 信 so much as trustworthiness:

The Master said, "If the scholar be not grave, he will not call forth any veneration, and his learning will not be solid.
"Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.
"Have no friends not equal to yourself.
"When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them."

See also this translation or Charles Muller's, which translates 忠信 as loyalty and good faith.