Rep. Arlon Lindner, a Republican from Corcoran who drew fire from his House and Senate colleagues for questioning the propriety of the Dalai Lama's planned address to the Legislature, made good on his promise to boycott the Buddhist monk's speech Wednesday.
While about 200 representatives and senators crowded into the ornate House chamber to hear the Dalai Lama, Lindner sat cross-legged at his desk in the nearby State Office Building, listening to the speech on streaming video played on a laptop computer. In the House chamber, Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz sat in his empty chair.
Lindner used a tiny tape recorder to record the Dalai Lama's remarks, and he said he planned to review a transcript before deciding whether to issue a statement responding to the address.
``This is kind of dying down, we may just let it die down,'' Lindner said of the storm of outrage -- particularly from Democratic senators and representatives -- that greeted his comments about the Dalai Lama in an April 30 e-mail.
But Lindner said he did not regret his earlier statements labeling Buddhism a cult and saying that the Buddhist belief in reincarnation is incompatible with Judeo-Christian principles that he believes formed the ``public religious ethic'' of the United States.
Lindner said Wednesday that he admired the Dalai Lama's stand against the Chinese occupation of Tibet. But he said he was speaking from the point of view of his Christian faith when he called Buddhism a cult.
``I would have either been calling it a cult or a false religion from Christianity's point of view,'' he said. ``And I probably would have caught as much heat for either one.''
Lindner said he had looked up the definition of ``cult'' in the dictionary and believed he had used it properly. ``From a Christian's viewpoint, that fits it,'' he said, ``although I realize they are a world religion and have been one for 2,500 years.''
In a news conference Wednesday, the Dalai Lama was asked about Lindner's earlier criticism and he dismissed it with a laugh.
``That's up to him,'' the Dalai Lama said of Lindner. ``No problem.''
But Cheryl Johnson of Maple Grove, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate who lost to Lindner in the District 33A election last fall, traveled to the Capitol on Wednesday to denounce Lindner's comments on the Dalai Lama.
She said she planned to run against Lindner again next year and would make his statements a campaign issue.
``We have families that live in the district who have sponsored Tibetan families,'' Johnson said. ``As a Christian, we have a value of compassion. I don't think Rep. Arlon Lindner's views show compassion and understanding.''