Some people would rather not engage with issues like abortion or Islam because these things have been “politicized.” So they’ll talk about less politicized things instead, like movies, sports, or, the poor topic that is always given as the example of shallow talk…the weather.
For the same reason, Christians oftentimes don’t want to talk about politicized issues when sharing the gospel and would rather focus on things like “the heart”. But what is the heart?
The heart is who you are. And who you are involves your beliefs and your feelings. When you start talking about beliefs and feelings, you’ve entered into the worlds of philosophy and psychology. You’re bringing up questions like “is there a God? If so, is he good?” These philosophical questions inevitably lead to the psychological ones: “What in your life experiences has turned you off to religion?” And the big one: “Tell me about your father.” Now you’re getting to the heart of things. The heart of that person.
“That’s right”, one might say. “That’s plenty to discuss without dragging in the politicized issues.”
Sure. But if we’re honest, we know that the heart questions can also be “ized”, and increasingly just as easily. The philosophical issues can be philosophized, dissolving into mere intellectual pipe smoke. We’re no longer discussing God here, we’re talking about numbers and abstractions. When this happens, the heart gets left in the dust as the mind flies off into space. Same with the psychological questions which devolve into mere pscyho-analysis. Through a lot of big words the raging rivers of emotion are diluted to single tears that can be blown off as a fun experience. When the word “father” emerges, one no longer thinks of the man who more than any other is responsible for where he is right now in life. Rather, he thinks of “men in general”, he thinks of Freud, he thinks of the old-man god he’d recently visited on his philosophical trip to space which ultimately led him into the black hole of his ego. And the heart is still nowhere to be seen.
The point is that the “heart issues” can be “ized” just like the political topic of the day. Philosophized, psycho-analyzed, rationalized, even spiritualized. All of which leave one spiritually paralized. If you find political discussion of certain topics paralyzing simply because others have abused them, to be consistent you should never again talk about any issue subject to abuse…like what’s going on in someone’s heart. Hearts are the biggest abuse targets in the universe, far more than any political issue you can think of. If a pastor wants to be consistent and say “I won’t preach on abortion because it is a politicized issue” he should also say “I won’t speak on faith because it is a philosophized issue” and “I won’t preach on anger or lust because those are a psycho-analyzed issues.” If one can’t preach on an “izable” issue, one can’t preach on anything.
The truth is, if something is being “ized” a lot in society, like the politicalization of marriage and family, it is possible that that is the thing that should be preached on the most. You wanna talk about hearts? “Out of the heart the mouth speaks”. There is a good chance these hot button issues are politicized (talked about all the time ad nauseum) precisely because they are what are on people’s hearts.
Don’t just talk about the “heart issues”. Why? First, because the so-called heart issues are just as subject to abuse, just as “izable” as the most overly discussed topic on cable news. And secondly, those topics everyone are jabbering about are on the table because they are rooted in people’s hearts. In a roundabout way they in fact are issues of the heart.
Jesus came to circumcize our hearts. To cut away the excess, the talking heads, all the “izing” going on so we would be free to think about all of these things in healthy ways, so he could then “baptize our imaginations” as Lewis says. When your imagination is baptized on an issue, you no longer care which news network says what about it. And you start to care less how awkward or offensive it is to bring it up at the dinner table.
Jesus wants to flood the world with his imagination, with the mind of Christ which has very specific beliefs and feelings on everything. Politics, philosophy, psychology…even the weather.
Forgiving Gollum 