This is why I love Orson Scott Card

Most people (at least those who enjoy science fiction) know Card as an insightful novelist who has that rare understanding of how crucial God is to the human psyche. Well, he's also an insightful columnist who has that rare, etc. He's always been one of my favorite writers, and I find that although we're miles apart doctrinally, I always come away from his books knowing my own faith a little better. I was looking forward to what he would have to say about the passing of John Paul the Great, and I wasn't disappointed.

John Paul II showed the way toward a real ecumenism. He did not try to pretend that Christianity was not divided into different streams of authority and different doctrines. Instead, he spoke with the authority he had, as if he spoke for all Christians, and then let Christians sort themselves out into the groups that agreed with, believed in, and lived by the bold statements he made; and those that didn't.

What I saw was that many a Protestant came closer to being in John Paul II's flock than many a Catholic who clearly stood outside it. The Christian world re-sorted itself into those who adhered to a faith centered in a divine resurrected Christ and a literal New Testament, and those who thought that "modern thought" should trump the core doctrines of Christianity.

The real division in Christianity today -- and in other religions too, I might add -- is between the churches and congregations and individuals who are accommodating themselves to the new secularity, abandoning doctrines and commandments in the process, and those that believe that God still requires us to live by faith and by obedience to his commandments, now as much as ever.

What makes this more touching is that Card is a Mormon, whose church isn't even considered a Christian sect by most others who use the name. Like the Samaritan woman at the well, Card knows holiness better than many who claim for themselves a place in the fold. It's one of my few regrets about John Paul II that he never met with the LDS Prophet in the same way that he did with other religious leaders.

Read the whole thing here. It's well worth the time.