ABSTRACT
The major so-called “World Religions” have long found the subject of non-heterosexuality and sexual minorities problematic (Swidler 1993; Yip 2007a). Their standpoints nonetheless display a number of fluctuating parameters. Firstly, the views of a particular religion habitually connects with the surrounding culture, raising pertinent questions as to how culture has historically shaped that religion as part of a reciprocal and ongoing process. Secondly, and relatedly, the matter of how, in the contemporary setting, the major faiths engage with the expansion of sexual minority rights emerging from the secular liberal democratic context. Thirdly, the degree to which such attitudes in the past and present are buttressed by interpretation of specific proof texts found in respective scriptures.
