Most Americans now think it's ok for individuals to change gender, Lifeway research says

More than half of Americans surveyed think there's nothing morally wrong to change one's gender, according to the latest LifeWay Research survey.

The result released two weeks ago showed that six in 10 Americans believe it's not morally wrong for individuals if they identify themselves with a gender different from their birth.

"A majority of Americans reject the view of a Creator giving them a gender that shouldn't be changed," said Scott McConnell, executive director of the research organization based in Nashville.

He added that many Americans have included changing one's gender identity as similar with the freedom to undergo cosmetic surgery, whiten teeth, dye hair and get tattoos.

LifeWay conducted a phone interview with 1,000 Americans in September to determine the percentage of Americans that consider changing one's gender identity as morally wrong, right or unsure about it.

Only 35 percent of Americans believe it's morally wrong to change one's gender identity, 14 percent thought it shouldn't be a moral issue while six percent have not made up their minds yet on the matter.

One of the factors that could change one's mind about the morality of changing gender identities would be personally knowing a transgender person, the research noted.

The study also revealed that 54 percent of Evangelicals thought it's morally wrong along with 26 percent of Catholics, 35 percent of Jews and Muslims, and 20 percent of nonreligious.

Chelsen Vicari, author of "Distortion: How the New Christian Left Is Twisting the Gospel and Damaging the Faith" and evangelical program director of Institute on Religion and Democracy, said she knows of young evangelical Christians who were made to believe into the "fallacies that sex isn't sacred, marriage is modifiable, and gender is fluid."

"But what do you expect when the 'Christian Living' section of our favorite bookstores and blogosphere are filled with popular, prolific Christian authors who tell us to relax on gender binaries or otherwise be dubbed a hateful bigot," she told The Christian Post in an interview.