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Reviews
*Publisher's Weekly (red-starred review)
The Church of 80% Sincerity by David Roche.
Perigee, $19.95 (160p) ISBN 978-0-399-53390-7
“‘The church of the title is not a formal organization but a concept – the church of choice for recovering perfectionists,’ Roche writes in a powerful little book that's part memoir, part inspirational handbook. ‘You can be 80 percent sincere 100 percent of the time, or 100 percent sincere 80 percent of the time. It's in that 20 percent area where you get some slack and you can be yourself.’ For Roche (now in his 60s), being himself has meant coming to terms with a face so severely disfigured by a benign congenital tumor that he's been spat at and called a monster. He was rejected from a seminary because, he was told, his appearance meant ‘people would not respect you as a priest.’ The loss of the fathers of the Holy Cross is the general public's gain. A performer and motivational speaker, Roche is frank and witty and incapable of resorting to sentimental pap. He's used to people staring at him, and he admits he's been tempted to respond to pestering, obnoxious boys by saying, ‘Well, my face is like this because when I was a little boy like you, I touched my wee-wee.’ He's well aware that people find him inspiring, but he doesn't try to hide his flaws, and that makes him more inspiring.”
from Social Advocacy and Systems Change: A new peer-reviewed journal
There are so many people with disabilities or other forms of obvious difference or disfigurement that have had ambivalent and varied experiences with the religion, clergy and congregations, often with good reason. On the one hand, their participation has so often gotten muddled by the theistic questions of others: Why did this happen? What did you or your parents do? And if your faith was strong enough, perhaps you could be cured, i.e., like us? On another, people with disabilities have often persisted, found, and claimed ways in which their own faith sustains them, and sometimes find a community in which that is welcomed and embraced, or, as is often the case, they are held up as models of incredible faith and belief.
What has not happened very often is a redefining of the options and the categories, moving away from the polarities of being seen as either faithless or incredibly faithful, or, in older terms, demonic or angelic, hellish or holy. Rather, think what might happen when faith gets looked at from a total acceptance of disability and difference as simply who and what one is, a part of the diversity of human kind, and when the experience of faith in oneself and life itself comes from a deep acceptance of oneself by oneself, with the help of moments of acceptance, embrace and community that come from all kinds of unusual directions. Read more>
from Bloomington Herald Tribune
Finally, a church for people ready to embrace their flaws
by Amy Corbell
“For interested readers, I don't want to spoil what I think may be one of the more profound personal narratives of the year. The memoir is not necessarily told in a linear fashion, but rather in a manner of statements of faith of the Church of 80% Sincerity. David writes of the roles that miracles, cruelties, unconditional love and prayer have played in his life, which has always been painfully examined.”
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More praise for The Church of 80% Sincerity - The Book
“Via his humor, grace and wicked wit, David has been able give voice to the experience of being facially disfigured. He’s done this in a way that speaks not only to others with facial disfigurement, but to all of us, who in our own secret ways harbor feelings of shame for a variety of visible and invisible differences.”
Ilona Frieden, MD
Professor of Dermatology and Pediatrics
Director, Birthmark and Vascular Anomalies Center
University of California San Francisco School of Medicine
“Blessings for all resonate throughout this wondrous book as David Roche intimately shares his journey toward self acceptance, encountering grace and experiencing unconditional love along the way. Anyone who ever felt different at any time will relate to and unabashedly celebrate these tales filled with pathos, humor and raw luminous honesty. Thank you, David Roche, thank you.”
John R. Killacky
Program Officer Arts and Culture
The San Francisco Foundation
“David is capable of sharing his thoughts, feelings and experiences in such an honest way that it encourages all of us to be open in ways we haven’t considered. Through his experiences, David has learned to accept himself as he is, and though his words he encourages us to do the same, all the while knowing it won’t be pretty, but that it will lead us to a much deeper level of relationship with ourselves and others than we thought possible.”
Kathi Gillaspy
Community Partnerships, Inc.
“David Roche has rewritten the human comedy. His ability to share his most private thoughts and emotions helps us all to deal with ours. His perception, humor, and honesty make him a national treasure.”
Dr. David Reisberg
Director,
The Craniofacial Center at The University of Illinois at Chicago
“The Church of 80% Sincerity is a brief, humorous, and profound guide to life for each and every one of us.”
Steven E. Brown
Author of Movie Stars and Sensuous Scars: Essays on the Journey from Disability Shame to Disability Pride
“David Roche’s book, The Church of 80% Sincerity, is a New Testament for all of us who live with facial disfigurement. How I wish there had been a book like this when I lost part of my face and jaw to cancer 35 years ago. David’s delicious humor will make you laugh and his insights will make you think. This book should be required reading for the world.”
Betsy Wilson
Former director of Let’s Face It USA
“I’ve always thought life should come with an instruction manual. Now David Roche has written one – chock full of hilarious wisdom.”
Persimmon Blackbridge
Artist, writer, performer
“David Roche’s The Church of 80% Sincerity is 100% comedic revelation. Nobody cuts through the patronizing ‘special’ treatment of people with disabilities in a more direct, nuanced and humane manner. This book is a pure encounter with the meaningfulness of disability as difference.”
David T. Mitchell, PhD in Disability Studies
University of Illinois at Chicago
“In The Church of 80% Sincerity, David Roche weaves his moments of grace into the big picture as well as exemplifying the true gift of difference, which is being different allows you to stand out and make a difference.”
Christine Karlsson
Forward Face
“A compelling and irreverent book, wise, very funny, uplifting, filled with tenderness and great love. A wonderful story of growth of spirit and triumph. As David’s personal physician and friend, I have been a witness and collaborator on his remarkable journey. I couldn’t put the book down and had to re-read it.”
Ken Barnes, MD
“The Church of 80% Sincerity is like hearing David Roche speak to you directly. He weaves his story with comedy and compassion in the way that only David Roche can do.”
Deborah Lewis
Executive Director
Ethel Louise Armstrong Foundation
“David gives us a frank, in-your-face narrative of his journey to self-acceptance and love. A story of real substance inviting the reader to dig to the depths of their own soul.”
Rickie Gill
Retired Executive Director
AboutFace USA
“I normally balk at using the superlative ‘inspirational’ to describe the work of artists with disabilities. But this book, like his performance work, is inspirational in the best sense. Never cloying or unduly sentimental, Roche shares with us complex lessons learned from navigating life with a conspicuous face. As a cultural outsider/insider, Roche has developed a keen sense of observation and a warm, engaging wit that magnetizes his audiences. Roche is always a lover of humanity, and finds beauty and grace in the most unlikely places. And he’s just damn funny.”
Carrie Sandahl
Associate Professor
School of Theatre,
Florida State University
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An excerpt from the Introduction
"In this book, I give you the principles behind the Church of 80% Sincerity so you can learn to accept yourself with your body’s perceived imperfections and all your inner ones as well. I give you the hugs of my nana, the terror of my first boy-girl party, the man who spit in my face and called me the ugliest thing he had ever seen, the man who in dying gave me a moment of grace, the doctors who touched my face with detachment, the soul mate who learned about my face through touch, all the people who had faith in me before I had faith in myself—who helped me to find that inner beauty."
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