The standard liberal churches are the "mainline" denominations. Here's Wikipedia's list:
Mainline Protestant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. However there are a few other churches that also fit. There is a (small) liberal wing of the evangelical tradition, and some non-denominational churches. Note that denominations aren't uniform. All the denominations listed have conservative churches, and even the Southern Baptists have liberal ones.
The most controversial item on your list is homosexuality. The mainline denominations all allow it except the Methodists, but many local churches and/or regions within those denominations do not.
You should feel free to ask questions. That's one of the major purposes of CF. You should expect to get responses from a variety of positions, with a majority of CF posters (and those who set the moderation policies) being fairly conservative. There's a liberal forum that is supposed to be restricted to people sympathetic to that viewpoint, although it has proven impossible to prevent heckling by unsympathetic posters.
The mainline groups all hold reasonably orthodox theological views, e.g. accepting the Trinity and the divinity of Christ (although they may explain it differently than the traditional creeds). There are some groups beyond those boundaries, such as the Unitarians (some of whom aren't nominally Christian at all) and the Friends (a.k.a. Quakers). I had some experience with Friends worship in college, and find it a very interesting group. They accept that there is an "inner light", but allow quite a range of views on who or what it is. Many (perhaps most) are Christian, but not necessarily orthodox Christian. The more traditional groups have a worship service based on silence. They are particularly known for their peace witness (as are the Mennonites and other "peace churches").
Most of the forums in CF are limited to Christians who accept fairly traditional Christianity, roughly the Nicene Creed. There is, however, an unorthodox forum that does not have that limitation.
About campus ministries: Most universities have them. Typically there are ministries associated with specific denominations, joint ministries, and parachurch organizations. Most campuses will have a ministry either associated with one of the mainline denominations, or a joint ministry. The list of ministries for your campus will normally list the denomination, so that should give you a clue. The parachurch groups include Campus Crusade, Navigators, and Intervarsity. All are conservative, though I think of Intervarsity as the most open. I belonged to Intervarsity in grad school, and thought it was great. But at the time our campus Intervarsity was more broad-minded than most. Indeed the staff member got in trouble for it. We had liberal and conservative Protestants and Catholics, with the local Catholic ministry welcoming everyone (including having open communion). They got in trouble for that. I find it pretty distressing that when a campus ministry tried to welcome and find a place for all Christians, the leaders got in trouble for it. By now the campus has the usual assortment of many organizations, each with its own fairly narrow niche.
As long as you stay away from the very conservative translations such as the New King James, scholarship is good enough that translations generally agree. There are only about a dozen passages where doctrinal considerations tend to lead to differences. Aside from that kind of difference, the major differences are in how literal the translation is, and whether it uses gender-neutral language when the original uses neutral words.
The normal translation used for college courses, and in worship in mainline denominations, is the New Revised Standard. It's a decent translation in the King James tradition (though completely redone from the original languages). it uses the best modern scholarship. I recommend either something like the New Oxford Annotated Bible, or using a separate commentary. There's a lot of background material that you need to understand what is going on, and a study bible or annotated Bible will give you that. The NRSV tries to be fairly readable, but to stick fairly close to the structure of the original. There are much more literal translations, but still, it does try to stick with the structure. If you're willing to abandon that, and translate meaning for meaning, the result is easier to understand. I find that it's best to have the NRSV (if you were more conservative, it would be the NIV or some other evangelical translation) together with a freer translation.
There are more choices for the free translation. I use the TEV, a.k.a. Good News Bible. It was replaced a few years ago by the CEV (Contemporary English Version), which I never liked. The Common English Bible (CEB) is a possible successor. I'm getting used to it, although so far I've stuck with the TEV. I also like the Revised English Bible, but it seems to have disappeared in the mists of time, largely due to a bad job of PR when it was released. For the NT you might consider "The Kingdom New Testament." This is a one-person translation by N T Wright. The other translations are committee translations, which are generally safer. But I really like Wright's translation, particularly for Paul's letters.
I'd suggest that you start by reading one or more of the Gospels. If you don't have a background in Christianity, you should probably read it with an introduction. N T Wright's newest book, "Simply Jesus" looks like a good place to start. My other suggestion is "When Jesus Came to Harvard" by Harvey Cox. Wright's book is more of a scholar's introduction to the current scholarly view of Jesus. Cox's book walks through Jesus life, and has interesting reflections on its significance, and comparisons with beliefs of other religions. It's based on a course he taught at Harvard. If you're interested in broader questions of Christian theology, you'll need to decide how much you want to know. Wright's book "Simply Christian" is one possible introduction to basic Christian ideas, but it doesn't have much about traditional doctrine such as the Trinity. Since a lot of discussions here are about those ideas, you might be better with something by Alister McGrath, either "Theology: The Basics" or if you want a full semester college-level course, "Christian theology: an introduction". (As a grad student, you might be interested to know that McGrath started out in quantum biophysics, and decided he wanted to work on the relationship of science and theology. After getting a Ph.D in his scientific field, he got a second degree in Church History, and wrote really good books on the Protestant Reformation. Finally he's gotten back to his original interest and started to write on science and religion. He's one of the few writers who is equally expert in both.)
Hi! Please do realize that Biblical Christianity, regardless of denomination, is to be focused on learning to love the unlovable. IF the Bible specifies something as sin, we are to expect ourselves to maybe not be inclined towards what is written. "Confessing" is agreeing with G-d on specifics! (Lotsa power there that gets muddled over most of the time)
