But philosopher, just because you were able to keep going and searching for the truth, doesn’t mean everyone else can. Everyone is created with different personalities and strengths. Not everyone can go through what you did and continue to search and ask. Why can’t you understand that just because you were BH able to continue and search, not all people can do that? It doesn’t mean they are any less of a person. Some people cannot look past that hurt and hypocrisy, especially during the vulnerable teenager years. Some need to go through being not religious and taking years to search for the truth before they are able to come back. Some may never come back. But I don’t think it’s a failure on their part; I think it’s a failure on the part of those who should’ve been there for them and weren’t.
I guess I just view it differently from you. BH, you were able to get past the responses you got when you asked, but I don’t disrespect those who weren’t able to. Every one of us was created with different strengths and weakness, and Hshm gives each person their own struggles in life. Who am I to judge how I would have been had I been in that person’s shoes? I am no tzaddekes to know if I would have overcome that test had I been that person. I think those who are OTD are turned off even more when they see religious Jews disrespecting them. What they need is love and caring, not disrespect and a holier-than-thou attitude from us.