sweib, you are right.
koton – i have heard that story about rav eliezr gordon beofre, and from what i have heard, he was not successful in his pushing his ruling. (many, many roshei yeshivos disagreed, including brisk!)
stories are just that, stories told by people with an agenda. unless you have found this story in a sefer that rov gordon wrote, then its just a story with absolutely no basis in fact. as for the three rulings of the gedolim of Eretz Yisroel, if you ever play sports, or let your kids play sports, you are going against their rulings, and you must stop immediately, since if you pick and choose, you’re mesorati (your words not mine).
now for the actual history of shaving told to me by teh agudas yisroel archiver:
it seems that in lita that the governemnt in the late 1800’s ruled that people must have clean faces (i think rabbi’s had exceptions). rabbonim had decided at that time that this was a sign from hashem that we no longer have the right to keep our beards, that this was one more thing hashem was taking away from us in golus.
one can argue that now he has given it back, etc, but you then will prob have to believe that hashem gave us eretz yisroel back as well, and we all know the chofetz chaim was aginst the state of israel [you hear that agudas yisroel, you mesorati movement organization of pick and choosers, how dare you join the israeli government ;-)]
lemaaseh, koton, you are a hothead that needs to cut back on your rhetoric. yes, me and you cannot pick and choose who to hold like, but my rov and your rov CAN and MUST. there is no black and whte in halacha, there are shades of gray! otherwise we would all be holding the same thing, since almost all rabbonim are bassically of 2 schools, those stemming from Volozhin, and those stemming from the Besht. the only way that there could be any machlokes in any shailo today would be over the fact that rabbonim pick and choose how to look at shailos, and look at previous seforim to pasken. most people hold like rav moshe for alot of things, yet chalev stam still to this day is not eaten by most of the yeshiva world. people use timers on shabbos, especially for their air conditioners, when rav moshe was vehemently opposed.
basically, koton, ill assume that you mean good, but cut the rhetoric, please, bec it can be sent right back at you, and your words may end up painting you in a very bad light.