I was a bit surprised by the reactions (here and on facebook) to yesterday’s post. People seemed to be under the impression that I’ve discarded Judaism because of evil people, but I’ve already discussed in another post why I’m done with Orthodoxy. The point I was trying to get across in yesterday’s post was that I understood the rationale of the rabbi who screamed at me and that perhaps that rationale should be carried to its ultimate conclusion (e.g. me saying “bye”), not that he was a nefarious person.
It would be disingenuous to claim that most frum people have treated me badly over the past several years. I have some very good friends and I’ve met some relatively open-minded rabbis; heck, I’ve been a student member of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals. As for kindness, there was one couple which let me come to them every Shabbos evening and there was a rabbi who would have a 45-minute schmooze with me every motzei Shabbos.
So yes – despite the gedolim and the societal deference they manage to cull – there are kind, open-minded, thinking, frum people. They haven’t solved the issues confronting their faith, but they believe they can be solved because they have overriding evidence which convinces them of Judaism’s validity. I am simply not convinced of any of that evidence anymore.
[Tomorrow: “Why Not Atheism?” At the bottom of the sidebar, I’ve added a Random-Video-of-the-Whenever-I-Feel-Like-It segment. Let me know if it slows site loading time down too much]
No comments:
Post a Comment