The conflict unfolding in the Episcopal Church in Virginia typifies not only the bitter disputes plaguing Protestant denominations nationwide but also the mean ideological struggles in key sectors of the culture generally.

Aside from religion, those sectors are entertainment, politics, the academy and the press. Under various banners bearing the words conservative or liberal, battles — verily, whole wars — grind on. And the liberals tend to hold the clear advantage, as they long have.

Perhaps in the entertainment industry they are most clearly dominant: Few males in Hollywood, and practically no females, boast their conservative views of things. Not far behind is the mainstream press, which voted 92 percent for George McGovern 35 years ago and hasn’t changed much despite the challenge of talk-radio, talk-television and the Internet.

In the academy — notably in law, economics and political philosophy — conservatives have notched important gains, but the combatants fight ever on. And in politics, ideology’s ground-zero, conservatives carried the field for a generation, but now Joans of Arc Pelosi and Clinton are leading the left out of exile — pushing conservatives into what could be a long, dark night.

Which leaves religion, typified by the Episcopalians. The four most establishment denominations — Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Methodist and Lutheran — all have squabbled internally for years over liturgies, hymnals, ordination, scripture, church doctrine and the like.

They have also squabbled over secular issues, upon which church hierarchs have seen fit to express their opinions privately or from the pulpit: abortion, homosexuality, capitalism, federal regulation, manifestoes on faddish irrelevancies, and parishioner monies for Leninist guerrillas slitting the throats of innocents in the name of a vague, deconstructed “liberation theology.”

In society, the basic debate is nature vs. nurture — heredity vs. environment, genes vs. education. In religion, as the Episcopalians are demonstrating, it’s reason vs. revelation — culture vs. scripture, interpretation vs. faith.

With about 77 million communicants, the Worldwide Anglican Communion, headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, subsumes the Episcopal Church U.S.A. with about 2.2 million communicants in 111 dioceses. The largest of those dioceses is the Diocese of Virginia, until last month with about 90,000 communicants in 193 congregations (or parishes). Continued...