God and Karma get blamed for a lot.

Who would have thought it would come to this?

For years, I have been critical of various fundamentalist Christian ministers who have blamed God, or, more politely put, held God accountable, for a number of events from hurricanes and earthquakes to plane crashes and diseases. I have cringed as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Fred Phelps, John Hagee, et al. loudly proclaimed that Event X happened because God was sending judgment upon the people of Y - and you can fill in the blanks.

For these ministers, with their theology based on the idea of God's complete sovereignty, that is absolute control, over human beings, human affairs, and the planet where humans reside and their companion piece of God's vengeful wrath being visited upon those who do not measure up to their standards, there is no alternative but to believe that everything, absolutely EVERYTHING, that takes place comes from the hand of God.

But now, instead of God being blamed for something, the idea of Karma is being "blamed" for the recent earthquake in China. That well-known theologian, Sharon Stone, she of Basic Instinct fame, has been quoted as saying that the earthquake came as a result of China's policy on Nepal and its conflict with the Dalai Lama. Now, Sharon Stone has apologized for the remark, but she shows that she buys into the same theological construct as Robertson, Falwell, Phelps, and Hagee. Whatever happens to us is because of some force or deity that is outside this world exerting its power over us and our affairs.

Where is the line we draw separating what God does and what is just a result of being human on Planet Earth? A plane crashes; was this caused by God, allowed by God, or a result of gravitational forces acting on an object? A person gets cancer; was this caused by God, allowed by God, or a result of a cellular pathology that can happen to any human? I have known many people of faith who have wrestled with the conflict between believing that God is intimately and personally involved with us and that God causes everything that happens.

Where do you draw this line? How much do you agonize over this in the middle of the night when something has happened to you or your family?