Churches splitting over homosexuality and related issues In the past 15 years, at least four big US churches have split after long and intense debates over homosexuality and the role of LGBTQ members. Religious historians say we haven't seen so many church schisms since 19th- century debates over slavery, when denominations split into Northern and Southern branches. And the current breaks over homosexuality could be just the early tremors of an earthquake that will scatter the country's entire Christian landscape, some scholars argue. "The mainline Protestants are like the shock troops," said James Hudnut-Beumler, a professor of religious history at Vanderbilt University. "They absorb the first body blows. But as the mainline goes, so more conservative and evangelical will go eventually."