April 24, 2005
the church of 80% sincerity
The Church of 80% Sincerity was founded by David Roche because we get it
right only about 80% of the time. As Roche explains, 80% is as good as
it gets and we have to accept that. We understand 80% of the truth we
encounter, believe about 80% of it, act according to our beliefs 80% of
the time.
I didn't think much of the church when I first read about it but lately,
I'm starting to think that David Roche is both prophetic and profound
which is evangelical parlance for 'he's right!'
I've never liked John Calvin because of Calvinism and TULIP. My pastor
once answered a question I had with an extended quote from John Calvin
and I dismissed the whole explanation summarily because I did not like
the man. My pastor was shocked because, to him, Calvin was a brilliant
theologian and the answer he gave me was the best one he had.
Now that I know about the Church of 80% Sincerity, I can appreciate
Calvin. He was wrong about atonement being limited because Christ Jesus
died for the sins of all people. But he was right about God's
unconditional election and irresistible grace meeting us in our total
depravity and about God preserving us against everything. Calvin should
not have burnt all those people at the stake for disagreeing with him
but I like him a whole lot better because of the grace I found in the
Church of 80% Sincerity.
Martin Luther was a great reformer who brought an end to certain church
excesses and abuses. He also rediscovered the doctrine that salvation is
by grace alone through faith. For a man who believed so much in grace,
in unmerited favour, he should not have been so virulently anti-semitic.
I'm convinced his attitude affected the Lutheran church and Germany. He
would fit in perfectly at the Church of 80% Sincerity.
Martin Luther King was also a great reformer, a hero of our times, but
he cheated on his wife and plagiarized some people. He had a dream that
he laboured into reality because he believed in the greatness of God,
the rightness of love and that justice will prevail. I do not judge him
by the colour of his skin or by the content of his character. He belongs
in the Church of 80% Sincerity. So would Mahatma Gandhi, another
reformer who followed the way of love and non-violence. He rejected
Christianity and he drank urine but, at the Church of 80% Sincerity, no
one would look at him funny.
N.T. Wright is one of our best living theologian but at a series of
lectures at Leicestershire (July 14-16, 2004), he said about a third of
what he teaches is probably false; the only problem is that he didn't
now which third. Now, if he had 80% truth in his theology and if he
could only communicate that 80% of the time, that means we would receive
64% or approximately two-thirds truth when we listen to him. N.T. Wright
must be a secret member of the Church of 80% Sincerity.
