In a provocative act with religious and cultural implications, Pope Benedict XVI has created an ordinariate — similar to a diocese — for disaffected Episcopalians who are converting to Roman Catholicism. It will be headed by a married former Episcopal bishop, and it will allow congregations that make the switch to retain aspects of the Anglican liturgy, including the majestic Book of Common Prayer.

The defection of Episcopalians illustrates a larger point: that the culture wars that rage outside stained-glass windows have come to dominate debates within and among Christian churches.

The alleged “poaching” of Episcopalians — and Anglicans in Britain — would have been unthinkable in the 1970s when a commission of Roman Catholic and Anglican bishops and theologians reached “substantial agreement” on the meaning of Holy Communion and the ordained ministry. The hope was that Roman Catholics and Anglicans would eventually achieve corporate reunion in which Anglicans would retain many of their traditions, including a married priesthood.

Now the pope is pursuing that vision piecemeal, not because of traditional theological differences but because of issues: abortion, the ordination of women in Anglicanism (the cause of earlier conversions to Roman Catholicism) and, most recently, the approval by the Episcopal Church of gay and lesbian bishops.

With the exception of the role of women in leadership positions, these are issues that also figure in secular politics. Think of GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum, a Catholic who echoes the Vatican on abortion.

These differences are rooted in theology, combatants in the clerical culture wars would say. Catholic opposition to women priests represents the view that the priesthood should mirror the practice of Jesus in calling male disciples. Likewise, Catholic opposition to abortion is an extrapolation of biblical prohibitions of murder.

Nevertheless, there is a striking similarity between sacred and secular debates over “hot-button” issues. On those questions, increasingly, there is no separation of church and state.