I really don't have time right now to type, but I have read yet another series of blog comments that just don't get it. Gil gets it, but many members of his comment community don't.
For weeks, people have been criticizing Cross-Currents, Rabbi Adlerstein, Rabbi Emanuel Feldman and other Orthodox rabbis for not slamming the Slifkin ban and its signatories hard enough. Sure, these people claim, the rabbis are quietly supportive of the general theories, but they're not coming out and denouncing the closed-minded medieval yada yada yada...
Let's get some things straight.
Everybody should realize that there are numerous gedolim and well- respected rabbis who thought the Kol Korei was ridiculous. But an opposing Kol Korei would not do any real good.
There is an Orthodox world out there. There are some...right-wing elements and some left-wing elements... For years, a number of rabbis of a more centrist persuasion have adopted a policy known by one correspondent of mine as "Pas d'enemies a droite", French for "no enemies on the right". I have been told that this was Rabbi Bulman's position. I can testify that in my perspective this is the attitude of Rabbi Eisemann of Ner Israel. What this means is that there is a group of people, including rabbis and gedolim, who feels that the right end of the Orthodox spectrum is quite often wrong or not completely correct.
HOWEVER, as a matter of general policy they feel that since things always gravitate towards greater polarization anyway (a la "It was the best of times it was the worst of times...") it is holier and smarter and wiser and more effective to stay with the right wingers and try to effect things behind the scenes. It's one thing to have enough skill to walk a tightrope. It's far more difficult to cultivate a community of tightrope walkers. That is why despite Rabbi Eisemann's unorthodoxly outlandish views, his children and grandchildren are chareidi poster-children. It's a decision a large segment of the American RC (Reasonable Chareidi) community has made. And in my opinion, it should be respected, even if it makes progress seem slower.