passfan: Very well. That is where you and R. Broyde (and others) disagree. That’s fine. As I said in my last post (and it may have been lost in the verbosity), the MO believe the debate is not settled because in fact, these issues were not even on the halachic radar in the past. They fist became relevant as a result of the cultural revolution of the 60s and 70s, and only now are becoming a topic of halachic focus as more and more women have gone through intensive learning programs, and as women become more powerful in their careers, ect. Except for some isolated teshuvos that don’t really speak to today’s facts on the ground, the debate has not been had; it is going on right now, and halachic debates like these can last years and decades – we only see which side is right and which side we will accept in hindsight.
In any case, if you and others feel the debate is over and that LWMO is much the same as the CJLS, that’s fine, and you should conduct yourself accordingly. But the MO world does not see things is such non-historical, short-sighted, and black-and-white terms.
Interestingly, as I pointed out above, because the MO world is more pluralistic, it can tolerate your view on the matter, as well as LWMO views, and RWMO views too – the MO doesn’t have this need to ban people from the Torah-observant world for minor deviations that are merely subjects of disagreement. The chareidi world has its own approach, which requires more uniformity and has less tolerance for change and innovation, and so it must reject the LWMO as practically conservative, and the rest of the MO world as only a bit better than that.
Again, time will tell whose approach will survive in the hearts, homes, schools, and practices of the segment of the Jewish people that consider themselves bound by the Torah.