Where can I have the conversation?

[Thats my opinion]

I guess I have not yet understood the difference between "groups"and forums." In an effort to engage with rational non-believers I tried to post something with the Atheist-Agnostic group, and was informed that this was a closed group consisting only of atheists and agnostics, and that anything I had to say was not welcome. So the non-religious come here, but the religious are not welcome there. I accept the difference. So let me try here what I was uninvited to say there.
I have developed a list of fifty outstanding men and women who have made significant contributions to social thought and liberal action, and who are atheists. I applaud the work of almost all of them (I would except Ayn Rand). I do not ask the religious or philosophic pedigree of those with whom I join in work for peace, racial justice, the rights of the GLBT community, overcoming poverty, economic injustice etc. I assume that those in the DU are of a common mind about these matters. If we are together in our work on these issues, then that is all I need to know.
I must admit that my radical social commitment comes from my faith. The first song I Iearned in Sunday School as a toddler included the words,"red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight." I have long been a peace advocate because that is what my faith obliges me to be. I would not be who I am without that grounding. My adversaries have been those whose religion or non-religion has pulled them in quite a different direction. But I don't reject my grounding because fundamentalists of any sort are narrow and bigoted.
I would like to hear from others with a variety of points of view as to how their faith or non-faith has led them to champion the issues we democrats espouse. What in your religious or non-religious background has made us allies in the way we see the larger world? Isn't that why we are part of DU in the first place, not to blast each other, or or to sneer at how others have come to the liberal positions they hold?