Sex Change

Dear Victor,

Some friends at work have been debating what Chastity Bono is doing (sex change). Most of us are church-going people, but none of us have found anything in the Bible that would forbid this. Still, I can't imagine any church condoning a sex change operation. Is there an argument for or against this from God's perspective?

Kevin L. - Vallejo, CA

Dear Kevin,

The Bible doesn't specifically mention sex change operations, probably because they were not medically or scientifically possible when the Bible was written. However, even when something is not mentioned in the Bible specifically, there are other things in the Bible which will help us understand God's perspective.

The Bible tells us that God made man and woman. He was intentional about it. (He is about everything.) There is also caution in the Bible about men wearing women's clothes or women wearing men's clothes. The best interpretations we have of that caution is that men and women are not to take on the identities of the other sex. We are not to reverse our sexual roles.

God has a purpose in making us uniquely male or female. It is offensive to God when we reject His purpose. So from a practical perspective, I don't care how someone feels, they are not a "man in a woman's body" or vice versa. They are believing at least one lie - about who they are. Sex changes, cross dressing or other such notions then are indeed not Biblical and are viewed as sin from God's perspective.