This is my moment in the spotlight and I’m losing my religion.

But the real truth is you can’t lose something you never had ¬— my closest brush with organized religion was one Easter spent with a friend at the church of a saint whose name I can’t remember.

All of a sudden Easter was a lot less about the Clifford the Big Red Dog-sized rabbit I pictured in my mind benevolently handing out eggs, and a lot more about Jesus.

I’m part of a sizeable portion of the United States who has never strongly identified with a religion.

I’ve never had my beliefs at the mercy of a political comedian or “Saturday Night Live.” I’ve never introduced someone as, “a friend from church.” I’ve never tried to back up an argument with religious text.

I’ve always accepted religion as one of those topics that you don’t bring up in polite conversion; and I’ve never quite grasped how such a personal, inwardly fueled force could find itself in the political snare.

McCain’s pick for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, accepted her position as mayor in the small Alaskan town of Wasilla twelve years ago and took on the responsibility of turning the town into a Republican refuge of Christian conduct.

While McCain’s campaign receives criticism for choosing Palin to garner the religious votes, Palin’s fundamental values conflict with the fact that her seventeen year old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant.

Her rise to office was decorated with the anti-abortion flyers and stirring religious stories that over the years have engulfed the GOP and turned them into an association with the Bible Belt south.

After all, the party whose social agenda you relate to seems to be strongly correlated between which box you check — would you choose “religious right” or “free thinker”?

Somehow the two labels often conflict. For example, Wasilla’s small town librarian cited censorship to keep books Palin found morally objectionable in the library, and was later fired. She declined comment to the New York Times.

Why can’t “religious right” and “free thinking” just settle their differences and get along?

The right could complain about the restrictions of behavior they have to face while being flattered with compliments of self-control from the free thinkers. The free thinkers, of course, in turn would tell long-winded tales of their playful exploits and shockingly pragmatic reforms.

Even in the land of the Devils, religion still plays a part on campus. I’ve been reminded to read the Bible, join a religious club, and attend services.

Outside of it, Palin still gets to take advantage of her right to free speech and defend her religiously inspired position as she did in her speech last night.

Religion is one form of identity that some people are just missing. We have different ways of telling people who we are. This isn’t to say the non-affiliated don’t believe in something greater, but I think of it almost as a separation of church and state going on in your own mind.

In the meantime, I’m still trying to find my religion.