The primary impetus for me to describe myself as 'moderate' is part disillusionment, and part historical precedent.
I don't like the term 'conservative' because it's too loaded these days. Strictly speaking, Catholics & Orthodox are conservative, in that they preserve the formative church and resist the dramatic changes that have occurred in Protestant churches (I'd list Anglican as well, but there's too broad of a sample there; the ECUSA is not exactly a good representative, although Anglo-Catholic parishes would). But what most people these days think of when they hear the word 'conservative' is the politicized Religious Right, Protestant fundamentalists and other more or less reactionary groups. I would prefer not to be associated with those demographics at all.
Hence, I actually prefer the term 'traditionalist' to 'conservative'. Some may see traditionalist as being the same sort of hardlined stance I want to distance myself from, but I use it purely in the historically analytical sense, rather than in terms of me practicing my faith. And in the big picture here, those closer to historically traditional Christianity are much more 'moderate' than those most people label as conservative now. Like my political and social beliefs, though, there are some things I make concessions about concerning the difference between what may have been believed 1500-2000 years ago vs. today - this is because of the fact that there are issues we've been wrong about in the past, and being that rigid only makes one's faith brittle. It also works in reverse - some things that are assumed these days weren't true about faith then, or weren't as rigid then as some groups are about those issues now. The Renaissance period fundamentally changed the way we looked at everything, and some ideas became more legalistic afterward than they were before that happened, due to changes in society's sense of perception and need. Trying to read and interpret Scripture with those lenses in is a gross error, IMO.
Politically and socially-speaking, I'm much more left-libertarian, and this is primarily due to the immense disillusionment I have regarding conservativism in this country. It ties partially back into the connections with the Religious Right as well, in that overall I just see them as too short-sighted and trying to avoid being culpable as much as possible. That said, I'm not 'for' liberals just because I'm not with the conservatives. I remain critical of some of their choices too, but I'm simply willing to see how their ideas play out at the moment.
I prefer to call myself a Progressive rather than a liberal, as Progressivism (as a specific political theory, not a synonym for the left as it's often served as in the last 30-40 years, considering 'liberal' somewhat became a demonized term during that time, although it looks like that's changing now) is much much more closely aligned with the middle and populist thinking. If people don't want to accept that way of defining it, then 'Old Progressive' (Paleo-Progressive?) would be a better term. Think Bull Moose, albeit with modern concessions, not Greens.