Paul Hiebert, coined the term “Flaw of the Excluded Middle” in an article with the same name in January of 1982 to help explain some of the disparity between western understandings of our natural world and the understanding of nature by the rest of the world. Essentially, Hiebert argued that the seen is related to the unseen (see diagram below) and that in the West, we have lost this belief.
REALM God
OF GRACE Heaven
The unseen
_____________________________________________________
REALM The created
OF NATURE The earthly
The visible
The Flaw of the Excluded Middle is a concept I have been well-versed in as a student and have even experienced to some degree on mission trips and in conversation with non-westerners. However, it was not until reading Spirit of the Rainforest by Mark Andrew Ritchie that I developed a more significant understanding of and appreciation for this concept.
Spirit of the Rainforest is an autobiographical account of a Yanomamo Indian, shaman, Jungleman, that is brutally (and often gruesomely) honest in its account of the Yanomamo way of life prior to his conversion to Christ. Most amazing in this account is Jungleman’s vision of the interrelatedness between the spirit realm and the natural realm. He has a vivid understanding of the role of demons (gods) in affecting the natural world from their spiritual realm.
Most notably, Jungleman is able to describe the inner turmoil he experienced when the multitude of demons who possessed him first encountered Christian missionaries and the lies they told him to drive him from Christ. His testimony also bears witness to the freedom he experienced when the Holy Spirit invaded his life and freed him from the demons that enslaved him. This book is at times painful to read (it recounts vivid accounts of murder and rape in this primitive Indian culture), but is incredibly important for a western mind to view the Spirit world.
After all, simply because we refuse to accept the natural ramifications of the the spirit world does not mean that the spirit world is not active in our world. Ritchie closes his book with words from another Yanomamo, Shoefoot, who has traveled extensively with him in the United States. “Shoefoot,” Ritchie writes,
sees the world through spiritual eyes. He genuinely believes that following the spirits of the shamans is detrimental to his culture and people. Again and again he has repeated, “The spirits are evil. The only hope for my people is to stop following those spirits.” He has even identified the signs and symbols of many of the spirits right here in our “civilized” culture. He has no problem understanding the Columbine High School massacre, or any other killing spree. The spirits of anger and hatred that drive a person are the spirits he has known personally. he knows what is like to kill under the influence of something or someone. So, when a students asks a natural follow-up question, “Why can’t you get rid of your spirits without converting to Christianity?” his answer is simple: “I don’t know any other way to get rid of the spirits that are destroying us. And no other shaman does either.”
Ritchie then draws some final conclusions of his own about the vitriolic reactions many encounter when sharing Christ with non-believers.
Remember the extreme spiritual and emotional tension often felt by shamans when in the presence of a person with the spirit of Yai Pada (Yanomo name for Yahweh God)? I have a feeling that some people experience that same dramatic inner turmoil when confronted by Shoefoot and his [Christian] message…
