Beyondbt.com: Heartfelt Website for Discussing Ba’al Tshuvah Issues, or Straw Man Apologetics Site?

BeyondBT is nominated for three different JIB Awards this year, suggesting the quiescent fundamentalists are continuing to gain ground in the Jewish world.

I had high hopes for beyondbt.com. They insisted that when I thought I was banned or edited, it was in fact a technical error. They were right. But that was almost a month ago! Since then, my comments have been deleted, and all comments posted must now “await moderation.”

Why, you ask? Because I did the unthinkable. I did what no Jew should ever, ever do. I criticized today’s holiest of holies.

I criticized Dark Light (Ohr Somayach) and Fire Hazard (Aish HaTorah).

Look, I admit that I am not surprised. Even though Beyondbt administrator David Linn wrote in the comments of my blog way back in the day (in December) that,

“You have never been banned from our site. Nobody has been. Neither have any comments by you ever been edited or deleted. You, and anyone else, are more than welcome to comment on our site.”

And in regards to my protest of an Aish HaTorah’s viewpoint I criticized on The Kvetcher, Linn made sure to note that, “Rabbi Schwartz is a Guest Commenter at beyondbt.com and his opinion is his own. Please feel free to comment upon it on our blog.”

And so I did, and a few weeks later, they began to delete my comments (just as they did to Ba’al Tshuvahs Anonymous). An administrator explained their position for this censorship in “One Billion Chinese Can’t be Wrong,” saying,

“We rarely delete comments, but sometimes we have no choice.”

One of my comments that gave “no choice” was this comment,

“Ohr Somayach encourages socio-economic destruction from all but the most wealthy of its adherents.”

Never the less, Rabbi Goldson “rebutted” me anyway, because “exposing the fallacies in your reasoning may be instructive to others.” Without my actual argument, of course.

It was a brilliant victory.

Now I admit I am not painting a pretty picture, but I was not using foul language, I was not calling anyone names. I believe, as horrible as it is (and I do think it’s horrible), that they do just that. And so do they, apparently, or they simply would have asked me what I was talking about.

I also gave (on a different erased comment) eight questions for these defenders of Dark Light and Fire Hazard:

1) Do they not discourage college?
2) Do they not encourage you to drop your previous network of friends?
3) Do they not encourage Kollel, which is in Israel, on the government dole?
4) Do they not encourage a “break” from work or school?
5) Do they not discourage birth control? That is, more kids?
6) Do they not encourage private school for each child? Is that not a significant amount of money?
7) Does Rabbi Mendel Weinbach, [the Rosh Yeshiva of the Ohr Somayach franchises] not consider it absolutely critical to remove a “bachur” from an “environment” of sin?
Does this isolation not prevent an expansion of his existing network as well as prevent professional experience and growth, a separate issue of opportunity cost in addition to just the paycheck?

But they don’t want to talk about that. They don’t want to address these issues. They have more important ones. Such as why it isn’t strange at all to dress like the Amish when everyone else dressed in uniform in communist China or some wacko country club, or pretending that those select few in a Big-Five accounting firm dress that way seven days a week and at night as well. OR that those crazy eccentrics who don’t wear all black are degenerate and immature, quirky, and a big rebel “non-conformists” (not the subtle kind) focused on bullshit superficiality, unlike the Ultra-Orthodox who focus on bullshit superficiality for good reason.

Sound like I’m exaggerating? Well to be fair, I will only use quotes from those writers who have had articles (not just comments) posted on beyondbt.com

No worse than the Democratic convention! “At Elks Club meetings (or so I imagine), everyone wears pins or hats or some other symbol of their brotherhood. At the 2008 Democratic convention, everyone will be wearing (in all likelihood) Hillary for President buttons testifying to their common political vision. Is this conformity? Is it bad?” – January 12th, 2006 - Rabbi Yonason Goldson

No worse even than communist China! “Thousands and thousands of bicycles. All of them the same make, the same model, and the same color — black. “How do you tell them apart?” we asked our host. He laughed at the question. “One may have a ribbon around the handle, a scratch on the fender, or a bell on the handlebar”. In other words, although they were all the same, they were all different.” January 12th, 2006 - Rabbi Yonason Goldson

Better than earrings! “I recently started growing my payis. They have gotten long enough so that when I tuck them behind my ears you can see a little bit of them peeking out from the bottom of my ear.” — Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow, January 2nd, 2006 8:26 am - Aryeh Leib Ecker

They’re quirky. We’re keeping it real! “Such quirkiness represents little more than a clichéd, shallow conformist’s losing touch with their individuality by “going with the (nonconformist) flow.” Towards a Subtler Nonconformity, December 22nd, 2005, Rabbi Dovid Schwartz

“I think that was my favorite post here so far. I especially like the concept that our dressing uniformly (though we women arguably have more leeway) is what forces us to define ourselves as individuals.�? Kressel Housman, December 22nd

“In one generation it was long hair and faded jeans, now it’s spiky hair and pierced eyebrows, but it’s no more an expression of “individualism” than drinking water. How you dress is an expression of group identity, not individuality.” Yaakov Menken, December 23rd (I’m cheating! Menken has never been permitted to post on beyondbt – he is a fundamentalist writer who is allowed to post on cross-currents! But isn’t his comment a gas? He must hang out with the real winners on Bond Street in Baltimore after maariv. “Spiky hair” and “pierced eyebrows” indeed!)

Deep thoughts! “As we learn more we become more aware of what is appropriate in different situations. This is true for everyone in society (you don’t wear jeans to a black tie affair).” Michael Salzbank, December 18th

Only if you’re married to Ya’akov Avinu! “Can One be a Frum Jew with a Nose-Ring?” December 15th, 2005 3:16 pm - Rachel Adler

High School OR Black Hat – Jew Decide! “The punk rocker types with their spikey hair, black clothes, and combat boots were Non-Conformists Supreme. The worst put-down from one of them was, “You’re such a conformist.” Kressel Housman, December 14th, 2005

A made man. “I remember when I first decided to wear a hat and my good friend said, “Now ditch the Metsudah siddur and you can just coast from here on in.” Mark Frankel, December 13th

More radical than a hippy on acid! “We have bucked the philosophies, mores, trends and fads that we were brought up with in a manner that is often jolting if not shocking to our parents and friends.” David Linn, December 13th.

You see, Rabosai, Beyondbt can’t worry about pesky superficial things like, “Should I listen to my rabbi who says I should wait and wait and wait and perhaps never go to college?”

Nor can they worry about other things like, “Hey, I have to admit, I like smart, artsy, rated-R drama movies, and that seems to be counter-Torah, but I have to admit, frum cultural options just don’t cut it for me!”

Or, “Why can’t I eat michigs out again? What about just a bagel? Or lunch at a vegetarian restaurant? “

And they certainly don’t tackle issues like, “You know what? This whole shomer-negiah thing isn’t all its cracked up to be! And since I’m finishing college late thanks to my Spiritual Guide’s wonderful advice and am in no position to get married, I may have to revisit that policy!”

And you probably won’t hear a lot about the fact that maybe some of that “cutting off” of your previous gentile and secular friends has left you feeling empty and isolated, and that you now think that was a stupid thing to have done, because the ones who put up with your fanaticism are, in fact, the ones most dear to you now. Because you went through a lot together. You grew up together.

Don’t expect those types of questions to be grappled with on beyondbt.com Just expect to see the most extreme examples brought to either justify the frum world, or alternatively, to be presented as normative in the secular world, therefore “proving” the frum world’s superiority. And don’t ask the harder questions. It just means you’re not one of the “overwhelming percentage” of “happy” people who loved radically changing their lifestyle and becoming a fundamentalist. You probably have serious emotional problems if that didn’t work for you. There is no other explanation. Sure, the frum world isn’t perfect, and not every Spiritual Guide is perfect, but if you don’t like it, the problem must be you.

“It’s not easy facin’ up when your whole world is black” – Rolling Stones