On another note, Hugh Hewitt once said that since he does politics for a living he hates it when pastors preach anything politically charged b/c it's basically "amateur hour" for Hewitt. Perhaps something similar can happen during a talk on religion or philosophy between someone who does it for a living vs. a lay person.

I think politics get airtime even though we're "not supposed to talk about it" because most people take the default position on politics that others have their own political alignment and don't expect each other to try and change everyone's stance and vice versa. So, politic blah blah blah are spewed with an air of sparring.

Religion is the opposite, people automatically assume that others think their own position is up for grabs — so they are apprehensive of the impending arguments that might with the objective of "conversion" to another point of view or vice versa. Not that I'm advocating religious pluralism, but I believe that those conversion arguments aren't going to be a "win" at the water cooler, in the elevator or at in the 10 minutes you are waiting with some others before the meeting starts.

IMHO, the Church really needs to do more to teach things like how The Contagious Christian shows us effective ways to influence other people's faith considerations in non-threatening or controversial ways.