Rabbi Riskin responds to the storm

The Jewish Internet is agog with the recent video of Rabbi Riskin seemingly praising Jesus and Christianity, and comparing Christianity to Religious Judaism.

From the video it looked to me like Rabbi Riskin had lost his mind. Obviously he was talking to Christians and his message was designed for them and not for us, but his comparisons were way out of bounds.

After the storm had been unleashed with criticism flying from practically every blog and jewish content website on the internet (except mine - I had written a post and then canned it), Rabbi Riskin has offered his response to the criticism.

In an interview to the Kipa website, Rabbi Riskin says that his words were taken out of context.
Rabbi Riskin says as an Orthodox Rabbi who believes in dialogue between Jews and Christians, out of mutual respect, while being careful to stay faithful to the Jewish outlook, and faithful to the beliefs and concepts that have been the guiding principals of the Jewish nation and the Torah throughout all of history.

Rabbi Riskin claims to not have praised Jesus - he says, "I never praised the character or the personality of the person in whose name Jews were slaughtered throughout history. If that is how my words were understood, I am disturbed by that understanding and state that that was not my intention at all. I apologize if my words were taken improperly. I related to the historical persona of Jesus, who was not a Christian, did not hate Jews, but was a Jewish and religious person. unfortunately, his faith and his way caused much suffering to the Jewish people.

Out of concern for the political future of the Jewish nation, I think that dialogue between jews and Christians strengthens our positions with the fundamentalist world that is taking hold in the world. But of course any dialogue must be done from a Torah viewpoint that is grounded in the heritage of old.

I see a failure to explain his position. He gives some background and context to his words. but just because he believes in dialogue does not mean what he said is acceptable. His words still compared Judaism and Christianity in unacceptable ways. he did not explain the true meaning and intention, which he says what taken out of context, of his words.