The Flaw of the Excluded Middle

 Such is the title of an article written nearly 40 years ago in a missiology journal by Professor Paul Hiebert, a theologian and anthropologist who was one of Scott's professors at Trinity. He draws upon his childhood and early work in India to make us aware of our own blind spots culturally, which is one of the values of getting out of your limited experience and into the messy diversity of the world. The article argues that somewhere in the 1800's our Western culture embraced dualism, drawing a sharp divide between a secular scientific palpable visible reality (body) and a religious unseen invisible reality (soul). In the process, we lost sight of the "middle", the spiritual powers, ancestors, demons, saints, magic, that most cultures across most of time had taken for granted as real.

As cross-cultural workers, we need to understand the world views we move in. And in our culture here, the "excluded middle" is the most important reality of all. Sure there is a creator God and an afterlife. Sure, there is a tangible cause and effect world with mosquitoes that bring malaria, and injections that can cure it. But in the middle lies the question of why my child is bitten and not yours, with whether my crop will bring enough money to buy the injection or not, with who might be manipulating spirits and charms to bring me harm. A theology of a God who saves souls, and a science that creates pills, without explanations of how humans live together in a broken world, falls flat.

Interestingly, Christians through most of history have not forgotten this middle. 

Take the reality of sin and evil for instance. The puritans and the Anglicans talk about the a triple layer that is somewhat parallel to Hiebert's scheme. The devil reminds us that we have a spiritual enemy that opposes God. The world reminds us that we live in a broken system since the Fall, where thorns and thistles grow, drought and heat oppress, life is a terminal condition as Kate Bowler says, it is more difficult for some people than others to get a good education, and spiritual forces interact. And the flesh reminds us that our own center is awry, we choose greed and lust and hate, immediate gratification and security, self over neighbour, comfort over holiness almost every time.

As Americans, we can learn from other cultures to look back at Scripture with fresher eyes. When Jesus was faced with a man blind from birth, the religious establishment wanted to narrow the cause down to someone's personal sin (the flesh). Was it his, or his parents? Neither, Jesus said. This was a broken-world issue that became an opportunity for Jesus to show the nature of the Kingdom, a place of healing and sight. Jesus refused to be forced into reductionist world views, and so should we. Almost every time we encounter an evil, we can find many layers of cause and meaning. The preemie admitted Wednesday by Kacie, born too early, as his mom walked the path to the hospital in labor, the first twin falling out onto the dirt of the road and later dying, this one surviving, mom only 17, and already the child from her first pregnancy and the first twin from her second pregnancy dead. Who sinned? Hard to pinpoint that, but within the story there could likely be a predatory man who got her pregnant, or a school head teacher that took her parents' fees but failed to give her the skills to continue on.  But there is also a vast social and spiritual reality that expects teens to have babies, that doesn't plan for delivery, that spends money on other priorities, that applauds billionaires playing with rockets while accepting as inevitable the high infant mortality of this continent. There is a malevolent evil that opposes the life that God brings, that whispers lies. 

These are important questions, because as God's people we are called to a holistic proclamation of the Kingdom. Personal, individual repentance and change. Yes, many stories of that in the Bible and this is a core way that reality shifts, one person at a time. But the prophets also called out the courts and the Kings, the money changers and the hypocrites. Jesus also turned over the tables in the temple where a system of charging the poor for sacrifices had led to barriers to worship, where the gentiles had been unfairly excluded. And we fast and pray against capital-E Evil, the spiritual forces of darkness we read about in Ephesians 6, the principalities and powers that seek to control this world against the good will of God. Here in Bundibugyo, we preach and teach, invite kids to learn truth, train teachers and pastors, so that individuals can have new life. We also shore up a wobbly health system, sit on committees, plan school curriculum and nutrition outreaches, develop literacy programs, work on a community level for public good. And we pray and testify to the power of Jesus over every spiritual force that is harmful. 

The church in most places and most times has done the same. If the American church today approached the evil of the after-effects of centuries of enslavement in the same way we've approached abortion, think where we could be? For abortion, Christians go beyond individual choices one by one, we campaign and vote and take the abortion struggle to courts, attempt to change laws, work to provide options for health care and adoption, etc. Very much a systemic approach. And we continue to pray. So the same energy and breadth needs to go into all our work for justice!

Here's a glimpse of what's happening around Bundibugyo with our team over the last few days, which I think gives us hope that people of faith can work on micro and medium and macro levels to testify to God's goodness:

First, read this post by the McClures about their exciting data from the literacy work. They have built on earlier work to train teachers to teach children to read, and are trying to seed that out into more schools. Since schools are shut, we have small Kwegha Camps (outdoor, masks, spaced) going on this summer too.

Our kids went to learn about basket-weaving (Kacie is the field trip planner extraordinaire) and our interns about pottery making (thanks Ann). These are ways we celebrate the beauty of Bundibugyo, the skills of our community, put ourselves in a learning posture, and support indigenous arts.

We continue to try and support the medical care of this district, Scott in maternity and buying electricity for the oxygen concentrators, me in NICU and Paeds seeing baby after baby. The wards are crowded and sometimes desperate, the improvements are multi-layered one-patient-at-a-time, teaching and improving systems for all, and prayer-based.

Scott also spends time on projects like the new chapel, and most recently organising paint for the girls' dorms, trying to take advantage of the down time. 

BEFORE/AFTER

But we also try to redeem the opportunity to paint!

And this weekend John was helping us prepare to distribute relief packages to 750 needy families identified by our district government, more on that collaboration later.

Meanwhile our interns went with our nutrition team to follow up some kids who had been discharged, and confirm they are still growing. So encouraging to see the way 12 weeks of gnut and soya paste, plus education, prayer, encouragement, can change the trajectory of a life!

And we continue to meet together, to encourage one another, to pray, to celebrate. This is our 6th week with Sunday morning sermons from around the continent, to learn to see Scripture from African view points with our interns. Today we celebrated Svitlana's birthday with a coffee cake too!

Keep praying with us, keep addressing the communal and systemic steep uphill climbs our neighbours face, keep working one by one too for everyone to live in the love of Jesus.