In a divide over LGBT issues that’s been called painful and destructive, some have started to lose hope that a Protestant denomination that claims “united” in its very name will remain that way. Across the United Methodist Church, there’s a lack of faith that common ground will be found, and it comes from both sides of the aisle — from those who advocate for same-sex marriage and the ordination of openly gay clergy, and from those who are adamant that such actions fly in the face of the Scripture.

(The Columbus Dispatch) - The United Methodist Church will continue its decades-old debate at its General Conference in Portland, Oregon, this week, but it’s far from the first group to struggle to navigate this massive chasm.

LGBT issues led to a split in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 2009 and have caused dozens of congregations to break from the U.S. Episcopal Church since 2003. Some congregations have left the Southern Baptist Convention over the debate, and member-led groups have formed in an effort to advocate change in the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The most vocal conflicts have come in mainline Protestant denominations, which include the Methodist Church, because they are willing to discuss the matter, said Don Huber, professor emeritus of church history at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Bexley.

But the LGBT issue is not the first that has caused division in American Protestant churches. Disagreements over slavery, Huber noted, took a century to settle. Think women’s rights, civil rights and the Vietnam War to name some others.

“Every family of churches has a conservative wing and a progressive wing,” Huber said. “So every time something that involves change comes along, there tends to be differences in opinion, very similar to secular politics.”

Though secular pressures have had some influence on the church in such matters, the church also has led the way for a number of secular changes, including abolition.