Mrs. Animal/Critter (Happy Anniversary!), :-)
At various points in my life I have been labeled a Presbyterian, a Protestant, and a lot of other secular "things". Both of my children were baptized as Roman Catholics (it means much more to my wife than me). I have my own connection with God (yes, I do believe in God as a notion or an ideal. But just like in the quote by Russell, I have always been very guarded in how I respond in a philosophical debate versus to a common interaction. What I mean is that if a stranger asks me, "are you a Christian?" I will answer no, that I am agnostic. Perhaps it is lazy on my part, but I don't wish to explain in painful detail how I believe in a kind and loving god, etc. etc. etc. I basically assume I am speaking to a fundamentalist and do not bother mentioning notions or distinctions about Gehenna, the dinosaurs on Noah's Ark or other nuances that I believe have been misinterpreted/abused for centuries. So, in my own brand of Christianity, there is no literal Hell and room for dinosaurs and billions of years in between.

I am still stuck with the Golden Rule and the Kantian moral imperative to act appropriately, but I do not fear a "beast". And I could go on and on. To wit, I believe that God does "whatever it takes" to reveal himself in a way people can understand and in this narrow rubric, it is possible to me that he inspired most of the major religions - or not. I'm not really sure. And life is too short to debate this stuff over and over as I am fairly confident that there is no truly "enlightened one" but we are all enlightened as God is part of everyone and everything. And those, I come back to notion that "I do not know". This is one iteration.

On another iteration, I might start with the premise that it is impossible for there to be a supreme anything in an infinite universe. It is painfully obvious that Darwin, the Geological record, et al are absolutely correct and that religion/mythology is just a construct of men to rule with the ultimate "eye in the sky" (notice that even Santa sees you when you're sleeping?) to control our primal actions when others aren't present. And I wonder where the kind and loving God was during the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Holocaust, etc. And I absolutely believe there is no possible way for God to exists - or not. Then I loop back.

And on and on. And I surmise that most people cherry pick aspects of religion they choose to accept and as you say, by an agnostic definition, you may well be agnostic too. In my case, I feel it is intellectual honesty to admit my doubts to those who care to listen. At the same time, I no longer spend much thought on trying to find the "right" answer as I believe there isn't one to be found, not in Aquinos, Locke, Dante, Augustine, Darwin, Marx, Vonnegut - or, maybe there is. Loop. And so on.

As such, I look now for connectedness with my fellow human beings (and animals too) and use my power of language to compare notes, gain insights, etc. We are biologically wired to be social and I try to make connections with people and try to lead a decent life and make others around me happy. In many regards, I lead a Christian life and am proud of it. Jesus was a non-violent revolutionary and a model for all the others that followed. One can do a lot worse than adopt his philosophies - or not.

And, I believe that I share your feelings about feeling connected with "a power in the universe", which I also choose to call God. At the end of the day, I couldn't care less what others label me.

:-)