Vaguely Giving Credit Where Credit is Due...

On the way to work today I was listening to NPR and heard a(nother) discussion about the pope and being conservative/orthodox and what that means to the church. They hit on something that really seemed to make sense to me.

We have entered a new era. Christianity is less divided between denominations but rather by the division between Orthodox and Progressive wings of each denomination. 20+ years ago, there was real hatred between orthodox protestants and catholics. I saw it firsthand, many times, on the side of the protestants. Now, issues like abortion seem to have created a common bond, at least politically among the Orthodox. other issues, notably women's rights/issues, Seem to be galvanizing the Progressives.

Previous letters from Pope Benedict XVI have gone out to other denominations indicating that he's not completely against recognizing other denominations. However, this seems to be directed exclusively towards orthodox the wings of these other denominations. Because of this, we may be entering into a new era of peaceful coexistence between Catholics and Protestants. By the same token, we seem to be entering into a new era of intra-denominational strife in places where divisions don't already exist (Presbyterian PCA and PUSA, i'm looking at you).