More than 7,600 of the United Methodist Church’s 30,000 churches have left the Protestant denomination as it drifts from biblical teaching on homosexuality.
“It’s the biggest schism in any American denomination in the history of our country,” said Professor Ryan Burge of Eastern Illinois University.
The United Methodist Church was formed in 1968 from the merger of two Methodist bodies. Before the disaffiliations, it was the second-largest Protestant denomination in the US, behind the Southern Baptist Convention.