Ted Pike: friend or foe?

Is Rev. Ted Pike a friend of the Jewish people? Hard to say. The evidence is difficult to parse.

On the one hand, Ted's an evengelical Christian. As a student of both Yakov Menken and Shmuley Boteach, I know that evangelicals are the finest people on planet earth - with the possible exception of Michael Jackson and whichever Jewish rioters Cross Currents is defending today, of course.

Also, Ted wants America to be governed by Biblical Law (to possibly include stoning witches, homosexuals, adulterers, sabbath desecrators, and disobedient children.) As a Torah-True (TM) Jew I think that's swell. I mean how different could Ted's version of biblical law be from ours? It's all the same bible, right? One glitch is that Ted thinks Christians should be the only ones doing the governing, but I'm confident there will always be a place for other Torah-True (TM) Jews who are willing to toss the Torah overboard and support the program of Christian purification.

[One Jew is already on board. Can you guess who it is? Surprise (!) It's Rabbi Daniel Lapin!** One Jew that Ted especially likes is Rabbi Lapdog Lapin of Toward Tradition, a man who is doing his best to revive the the tradition of both Kamtzah and Bar Kamtzah by waging war against other Jews. Ted has also called the Toward Tradition Rabbi "a second Moses" who "might lead Jews of good intention out of subservience to B'nai B'rith's evil influence." Ted doesn't mention who the new God will be once Benedict Lapin has slain Our Lord and Master Abe Foxman, but I have a feeling the guy had a role in Mel Gibson's last movie. ]

So Ted's pro-Jewish resume seems pretty solid.

But here's the problem: Reverend Ted is also the author of one of the most egregious examples of anti-Semitic drivel I've read in a long time. I'd quote the juicy bits, but the whole thing needs to be seen to be believed. As a whole, it neatly rebuts the theory that Israel's political enemies during the recent war were clustered on the left.

Ted, as a god-fearing Christian, is a card carrying right winger who happily preaches the biblical message of God's devine abhorance for all things liberal. In other words, he's exactly the sort of guy the Cross Currents people love. A conservative Christian, through and through. Yet, along with hating gays, foreigners, taxes, minorities, and, presumably, women, Ted also hates Israel and all things Jewish.

How very confusing.

** Edited at 12:40 PM. To the best of my knowledge Lapin has not reciprocated Rev. Ted's warm feelings.