Religion - I was baptized Episcopal, but raised Presbyterian.  At one point in my youth, I was determined to become a Presbyterian minister. The thing is, the more I studied, the more questions I began to ask, and having the vast majority of those questions answered with some variation of "because the Bible says so" or "you have to have faith", I was basically driven from organized religion.  One fundamental truth I came to on my own is what I state in my signature line - that the value of your faith is really shown by the kind of person you are.  One day, about 10 years ago, I took a trip to the beach with my sister, a friend of hers, and their children (separate, not together). Both of them were devout Christians, and a conversation came up - my sister was always trying to save my soul (even though I'm actually a much nicer person than she is). During the conversation, her friend asked me to put what I believe into words. I explained that basic principle that I do believe there's a God, but none of us can truly understand the nature of God - it's way above us. But I did believe that there was only one actual God, and that all around the world, when people prayed, no matter what they believe as the nature of God, only one set of "ears" received those prayers. I also described that philosophy from my signature. My sister looks at me and says "Oh my god, you sound like a Unitarian". I'd never heard of Unitarian-Universalism, but being recently divorced and alone, and looking to expand my community interaction, I checked it out. I went to the national web site, and read all about them - and was surprised that yes, they DID embrace the same philosophy that I had evolved to. Essentially, I remain agnostic on some level - not because I am unsure of the existence of a God, but because I never stop question.

And that's what draws the two -politics and religion - together for me. That basic agnosticism - always questioning - applies to both my political and religious lives.