Mods, I hope you let this post through, though the topic where what I am quoting appeared, has been closed. I just wanted to answer non-confrontationally, the question that Daas Yochid posed.
(Daas Yochid): But why do certain people consistently follow the lenient approach, if not because it’s easier? Is the more stringent opinion in halachic matters not also “His will”?
But Daas Yochid, that is exactly the point. The lenient position IS the Halacha and there is absolutely nothing wrong in consistently following it, as long as it completely conforms to what Hashem asks of us, because that lenient position is exactly what He told us to do (in most cases, and not where a heter is given for some unusual circumstance). Hashem didn’t seek to make life hard for us. His Will is for us to “chai bahem.” Some people choose to follow more difficulty and stringency in their observance, and that is fine for them, and yeyasher kocham. But the danger lies in their assumption that others who do not follow their derech are LESS frum than they, and that is patently unfair both to assume that and worse, to voice it. Even as I type this I can envision certain individuals saying, “But we ARE more frum.”