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Conflicts within denominations: 

Within North American culture, social conservatives and liberals hold conflicting views about many topics with a religious, moral or ethical component. Perhaps the currently most divisive are debates over equal rights for homosexuals, and bisexuals and abortion access. These differences between conservatives and liberals are naturally reflected within Christian denominations. Many Christians now hold diverse beliefs about the nature of sexual orientation, the role of women, and other topics. Some hold traditional gender and theological views; others have adapted their theology to accommodate findings of human sexuality and biblical criticism. Many members want to remain in the denomination in which they were raised. The result is that liberals and conservatives within many denominations have different visions of the future for their faith group. The result is often intense conflict and even potential schism.

Divisions within Christianity: 

Some theologians view Christianity as being composed of two or more quite different religions, -- one conservative and one liberal. Each is viewed as sharing the same name and the same Bible. But they make dissimilar assumptions about the Bible and thus interpret it differently. 

Other theologians and commentators divide Christianity into three wings: conservative, mainline and liberal.

Clergy - laity conflict in beliefs:

Another level of serious conflict occurs between the clergy and laity of some mainline a few liberal denominations. Generally speaking, many church members have been brought up to believe in heaven and in the literal truth of Jesus' virgin birth, divinity and resurrection. Some believe in the inerrancy of the Bible, and other historical beliefs. However, most clergy have attended theological colleges and many have developed personal beliefs that reflect current liberal Biblical scholarship. They reject many of the traditional doctrines of the church. This produces a conflict among clergy, between their need to preach the truth as they see it, and their need to support the basic beliefs of their denomination, and avoid controversy.

At stake can be the unity of the congregation and denomination. There is no simple solution to this problem. Most conservative congregations do not experience this problem. Belief among the laity and clergy is much more homogeneous. Very liberal denominations welcome and value diversity of opinion; differences in belief are not threatening to them.

Examples of intra-denominational conflict:

The Roman Catholic Church is not normally considered a mainline denomination, and is certainly not Protestant. But its experience is similar to mainline Protestant denominations. Is is going through a period of considerable internal dissention:

How denominations handled past internal conflicts:

There have been a few topics that have seriously divided mainline denominations in the past. Perhaps the four most important were frictions between: