To illustrate, I was the founder and captain of my high school’s debate team. I was in a boys-only school, with mostly yeshivishe rebbeim, which catered to the MO world. My classmates were all MO, or not frum(the school was for kiruv as well). I doubt anyone here has heard of it. Anyways, my English principal was a person who sacrificed for Torah. She was modern, but was full of maasim tovim; she would give of her time, money, and resources to help at-risk teens and kids who wanted to become frum… she’d lay for their tickets to go to yeshiva in eretz yisroel, and many other things… May her neshoma have an aliyah.
I was a spirited 15 year old who loved debating; my jewish history teacher introduced me to a network of MO schools that had a debate league. We joined, and competed quite successfully, despite being a school that did not emphasize academic performance. We qualified for the semi finals in the season’s tournament….then we received word of what the topic would be.
Before this, the topics were all pareve. Should there be a draft, should the government subsidize health care, should foreign policy be geared towards nation building…. topics that were not hashkafically sensitive.
My principal and I saw the email at the same time. We looked at each other in disbelief. I believe she understood at that point what MO had become…the topic was polyamority. I had never heard of the term, but one need not be an etymologist to figure out what it meant.
We dropped out of the tournament. My principal and I wrote a fiery letter to the board, and the MO school that was hosting the event.
It was eye opening…the first of many experiences that made me realize that Torah Judaism is only to be found in the Yeshiva.