It appears to be Introspection Night here at dKos, with hono lulu and raybin both posting diaries calling for personal stories - raybin of unsung heroes, hono for hopes and fears. I encourage everyone to read their diaries as well, and recommend them - Gannongate is wildly entertaining, but not very edifying.
Here's what I want to know (and surely this has been covered before, but not recently and so I want you to help me learn): How does your faith (or lack thereof) influence your politics? How do your beliefs jibe with your convictions? Do they?
Extra points for a "conversion story," i.e., how you realized that your faith and your politics were incompatible and so changed one. No points for saying "I'm Buddhist/Wiccan/Satanist/Atheist so I have the politics I have because the other side wants me in Gitmo." We're looking for meaning folks.
<bi> My story below the fold </bi>
My parents are a mixed marriage. My father is Jewish and my mother... was raised Methodist. I make that distinction because no one's really sure what she believes now, except she hates wingnuts of every stripe. I was raised without a faith, and found myself shorn of a spiritual compass with which to answer to my satisfaction any "BIG" questions. I experimented with a number of paths, but none of them seemed right.
Then I started learning about Judaism. Everything I learned about it made more and more sense. Every step of the way, Judaism seemed to be informed with a care for the human soul, not just a care for its destination. Judaism seemed to believe that the journey was at least as important as the destination, and so ordered not just your death, but your life. I found this incredibly humbling, and incredibly responsive to my needs and hopes and fears.
Here's the problem - I was a total wingnut. Rightist moron. I talked constantly about freedom, and rights, and the market, and how everything could be fixed if we just got government out of our lives. I railed at postmodernism, mocked "Marxist" professors, and was, in general, a total jackass. But as I learned about Judaism, I realized that I couldn't be a Jew - which was becoming more integral to my identity every day - and be a conservative. I had to be committed to social justice, and I had to believe in my fellow man - not just in myself. I had to believe in community holiness, not just individual holiness. I had to seek God's face in the gutter, not in the prayer room. God was calling out to me to defend those too weak to defend themselves, and so I had to abandon my dittiot (thanks jim!) posturing and become a true lover of man, a true man of God, and a true Jew. I had to go seek out my life in the lives of others.
That's my story. I have now bared all. 'Course, no one will ever see it.