What About Sexual Reassignment?

What About Sexual Reassignment?

Dear Bro. Waddey:
How should we response to a person who is in the process of sexual reassignment surgery who want to become a member of the Lord's church and wants to know if they would be welcomed? How should we view those who are born with both sex organs, but decided not to change, or those whose parents made the decision for them?
-Waldo

Dear Bro. Waldo:
Living in this marvelous age of medical technology not only offers blessings, it presents great challenges to Christians who wish to please God in all things. It raises ethical questions our predecessors never had to face.

There are two categories of people who seek sexual reassignment or sex change surgery.

1. There are legitimate cases that occur when a person is born with what medical terminology describes as sexual anomaly. In such cases a child might be born with imperfectly developed sexual organs, both male and female organs or the sexual organs of one sex but the chromosomal/hormonal nature of the opposite sex. In days past people born with sexual anomaly were left to grow up with their defective sexual identity. This of course caused great pain and confusion in their lives. The term hermaphrodite was commonly heard. Now doctors perform surgery as soon as possible to correct such deformity. In the case of the child with both male and female organs the most important question to be determined is, is the child genetically and harmonally male or female? If that is determined then the surgery matches the organs to those of the child's sexual nature. We should think of such procedures just as we would of the child born with any other physical defect that is surgically corrected.

The situation is complicated if the person has been allow to grow up before the corrective procedure is attempted. For example a child with both organs might be raised as a boy, but hormonal studies might reveal he is genetically and harmonally female. The corrective surgery seeks to correct the mistake in her body but there should be a correction in her sexual identity as a person. The child could just as easily have been raised a girl if the parents has elected to do so. When such a case comes to our attention, most of us living in our normal circumstances are shocked, but it is a needed correction for the affected person.   In such cases, corrective surgery is no more wrong than to correct a defective heart or limb.

2. The second category are those people who are homosexual in their sexual desire and practice. Some men who wish to engage in sex with other men and aspire to fill a female role or women who wish to be men for the same reason seek such surgical reassignment. These are people with normal bodies but because of faulty training and conditioning in their formative years, or by choice, they turn from heterosexual relationships to those of their own sex.   To fulfill their desire they seek out doctors who can transform their sexual nature. Since God has clearly spoken on the subject of homosexual behavior, condemning it as unnatural (Rom. 1: 26-27) and abominable (Lev. 18:22), sexual reassignment for this reason is clearly wrong.

Now if such a person should sincerely present him or herself for baptism how should we respond? If they are of the first category, we should accept them just as we would the person who has had any other deformity. They should be not penalized for that which was beyond their control. If they are of the second category, and if we are satisfied they are genuine in their request, and have truly repented (Acts 2:38), we should baptize them into Christ. Their case would be no different than the immoral heterosexual or the homosexuals who had been saved in Corinth (I Cor. 6:9-11).   I would recommend that there be a period of personal study and counseling with the person to make sure that they understood that such personal situations should not be made public to others or promoted as it would surely create confusion in the congregation and stigmatize the person.

Since the leaders of the homosexual community are making war against conservative churches who will not yield to their demands for acceptance, we must be on guard lest a homosexual person of that camp come seeking baptism and membership in the church in order to create a confrontation and crisis to the benefit of their cause. If the person is determined to be of that camp they should be turned away!

Sincerely,

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