BS”D
Nothing is more terrible than your holier than thou attitude, SJSinNYC, coming as it does from someone who is posting borderline kefira and giving those who waver more downward momentum.
I have had it with the acts put on by the barely frum crowd all over the Net who hide behind a facade of politeness and mentschlichkeit as they post information with no basis in Torah and use their facade to convince those who are wavering that their way is the right one. I have most of those sites in my filter; here B”H your voice and the voices of a few more like you are drowned out in a tidal wave of proper Torah based discourse.
Give me a rude, sloppy 300 pound 13th Avenue shopkeeper type with kishke all over his shirt who’ll run out any moment of the day and start a car whether or not he’s officially a member of Chaverim, compared to the oh, so genteel MO world which, when push comes to shove, relies on the 300 pounders and their sometimes loud wives for chessed. The first guy’s children will probably grow up to be slightly neater 250 pounders who still run out and fix cars; the MO children will either join the charedi world or go off into this YCT style kefira-lite that calls itself “Orthodox” but is really “conservative.” B”H far more are turning right rather than out. What’s more, the 300 pounder davens to Hashem bearichus from his heart every day; your ilk see the mitzvos as an imposition, one more bill to pay lehavdil. (and from the little bit I know about Lakewood and similar communities the people out there doing the right thing are every bit as presentable and polite as the barely frum crowd even if they do not have secular education – something about crowded NY makes people become rude and rushed).
I was distracted when writing that post (from now on I post only at night :)) and I meant to add that here we are using screen names and that we are often being very informal. I know Syriansefardi is far from rude here and I did not want her to think that her sometimes informal replies are impolite or anything she should ever regret.