What would we do without celebrity analysts?

It is with great effort that I restrain my electronic tongue here, because several insults and obscenities come to mind, but I will do as I think the Dalai Lama would have me do and simply point out that Ms. Stone gravely misunderstands the concept of karma and how it operates in Tibetan Buddhist thought (indeed, in any Buddhist or Hindu tradition I know of, her statement borders on the blasphemous).

I hope the controversy from this incident will lead Ms. Stone to explore the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path with an open mind and heart, and lead her away from the sort of ego-based thinking that creates such a statement.

RJohnson, I have to take issue with your statement that Robertson and Falwell's finger-wagging "You helped this happen" moment wasn't met with wide and vocal disagreement. Many prominent conservative and Christian individuals and organizations denounced those remarks in clear and unambiguous terms at the time and have done so repeatedly when they've been brought up again since.

After watching/listening to the video, I think Ms. Stone's comments have been misconstrued. She doesn't say that it's karma; she says: "... concerned about, Oh, how should we deal with the Olympics because they're not being nice to the Dalai Lama, who's a good friend of mine. And then all this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and I thought, 'Is that karma? When you're not nice, does the bad things happen to you?' And then I got a letter from the Tibetan Foundation, that they wanted to go and be helpful, and that made me cry. And they asked me if I would write a quote about that, and I said I would, and that it was a big lesson to me: That sometimes you have to learn to put your head down and be of service even to people who aren't nice to you."

I think it's the Chinese government and Ms. Stone's critics, including Antichrist Dior, that has their heads up their rectums, not Ms. Stone. She gave what might be called a Christian response to the interviewer/reporter - and her one question about "karma" (yes, it's a question, not a statement) got jumped on by some rabid reporter or editor and used to crucify Ms. Stone.

Based on the video, she has been done wrong big-time.

And, Rod, your headline/post title similarly wrongly accuses Ms. Stone.

(FWIW, I've never seen a Sharon Stone movie to my knowledge. I think my wife has a Western that she was in on DVD.)

"RJohnson, I have to take issue with your statement that Robertson and Falwell's finger-wagging "You helped this happen" moment wasn't met with wide and vocal disagreement. Many prominent conservative and Christian individuals and organizations denounced those remarks in clear and unambiguous terms at the time and have done so repeatedly when they've been brought up again since."

I have found a number of more liberal Christian leaders who denounced the remarks, but I have not found any statements from the conservative evangelical leadership. Can you cite some of these leaders? For example, I've specifically looked for remarks from the following people:

Phyllis Schlafly
James Dobson
D. James Kennedy
Charles Stanley
Gary Bauer

I found a statement from James Robison which agreed with Falwell, and of course William Buckley's stinging rebuke of them. But even Jerry Falwell himself said that there were no leaders within the Christian right who were pressuring him to retract his statement. Likewise there are no published statements that I can find on this at the websites of prominent organizations in the conservative evangelical movement.

So, I'd be happy to read any citations you have to support your remarks. Certainly there were a number of more liberal and moderate Christian voices speaking out, as did a number of secular conservatives (i.e., conservatives not identified necessarily as leaders in the evangelical church). But among the large number of conservative evangelicals which are so powerful in the GOP there seems to be general silence, and in a couple of cases tacit agreement, with the statement, at least from what I have seen.

This kind of statement is not much different from the one made by Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell regarding the 9/11 tragedy, which didn't seem to register much open disagreement within conservative circles. I wonder if conservatives would have been more accepting of Ms. Stone's statement if she had said that God sent the earthquake as punishment for China's communist regime and their treatment of the Tibetan people? - RJohnson

But that is precisely what she did NOT say. Did you listen to/watch the whole video? I transcribed the relevant part in my earlier post, and she did NOT say that it was China's sins against Tibet or karma that brought the earthquakes. She said it brought the thought or question in her mind about the nature of karma or the effect of doing bad things to people.

By comparing her statement to Falwell, Robertson, etc., you, too, are misconstruing what Ms. Stone said and blaming her for something she didn't do. It's a shame that she was forced to apologize for something that needed no apology, and it's a bigger shame that people continue to twist her words against her into something she didn't say. But I guess that's what sells news or keeps people like Hannity and Colmes and sensationalistic journalists in business.

"because you originally supported the Iraq War, Rod"
Rod supported the 'war' - that is really strange!