Ask Gramps.org

Are there any scriptural references that speak against sex change operations?

Gramps,

Can you recommend any scriptures that speak out against a person tampering with their body, when it comes to sex change operations?

Susan, from Winfield, Kansas

Dear Susan,

Even the modern scriptures were written before modern medicine developed into such unspeakable avenues, so you will find nothing specific to that subject in any scripture, ancient or modern. Even the prophets of today don’t say much about it because it’s so obviously horrible a thing to do that there is apparently little or no need to broach the subject to the audiences that are available to those who speak for God. There is one general reference, however, in the New Testament, that could be applied to this subject which is a statement by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians, as follows—

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are (1 Cor 3:16-17).

Searching through over 3000 sources of literature related to the Mormon Church, I found only one reference to sex-change operations, and that was a reference from the Brigham Young University, as follows—

“The 1989 instructions adopted a different format and gave as grounds for discipline a long list of illustrative felonies plus a number of items that would be misdemeanors or noncriminal acts (adultery, fornication, homosexual relations, sex-change operation, spouse abuse, abandonment of family responsibilities, drug misuse, abortion, and apostasy)” (Confession in LDS Doctrine and Practice, BYU Studies, vol. 36 (1996-97), Number 2–1996-97).

Gramps