'The Dalai Lama is one of my spiritual heroes': Rabbi on CNN panel pushes back against outrage over Dalai Lama kissing, telling boy to suck his tongue

Rabbi and Rolling Stone columnist Jay Michaelson earlier this week pushed back against outrage over the Dalai Lama being caught on video kissing a young boy and telling him to suck his tongue.

What are the details?

Michaelson was part of a "CNN Tonight" panel Monday, and host Alisyn Camerota quizzed him first about the Dalai Lama's words and actions after a clip of the incident played.

"The Dalai Lama is a very playful human being," Michaelson began. "And we may see this in a weird, kind of gross, sexualized way, but this is about as sexual as a bowl of plain rice. There is nothing sexual ... or erotic happening in this encounter."

He added that "Tibetan culture just has different boundaries" compared to Western culture, where the tongue is "what we kiss with, it's sexualized ... it's not seen that way in Tibetan culture. This is a part of the body. It's something playful."

Michaelson went on to say the Dalai Lama's actions were "clearly a mistake. The apology was in order. This was clearly something that was at best, you know, insensitive to how this would be seen by a large swath of the world population."

However, he emphasized that he's "biased" before adding that "the Dalai Lama is one of my spiritual heroes. I have met him. Being in his presence is really one of the most powerful experiences I've had in my life. And the aura of loving kindness that he has is evident, even here where he's being playful in a way that in Western culture would certainly be inappropriate."

Camerota wasn't exactly buying Michaelson's defense of the Dalai Lama, saying emphatically that "the boy doesn't want to" kiss the Dalai Lama or suck his tongue, adding that the Dalai Lama is "taking the boy's head ... just sort of reading the body language here. I'll take your word for it that it seemed differently there culturally, but the boy doesn't seem to be wanting to participate in this."

Michaelson continued his defense of the Dalai Lama: "Well, I don't know ... the boy's face ... appropriately is blanked out. We have no idea what his facial expression was. I don't see that in the body language. I just see kind of a weird moment. And again, look, this is an 80-something ... year-old spiritual leader who's been celibate for his entire life. Unlike, you know ... we see our religious figure in a position of power, and we read it through our lens. We're scarred by generations of Catholic Church sexual scandals and by abuses by spiritual teachers of all varieties, including some of my fellow rabbis in the Jewish tradition. And we see that through that lens — as well we should — but that's not necessarily the lens that a different culture might see this interaction through."

'A very breezy apology'

Another panelist, consultant Evan Siegfried, said the Dalai Lama should have been sensitive to the "boy's body language" as the boy seemed to "recoil and seem unsure. Yes, we didn't get to see his face. Maybe he was smiling. But at the same time, the Lama should have also been respectful there. And I have very much enjoyed the Lama and his teachings. I think he is a powerful force in the world. But what happened was weird. And then from a crisis communication standpoint, which is my bread and butter these days, I thought they absolutely bungled it. The apology, it seemed like a very breezy apology."

Camerota jumped in to read the statement from the Dalai Lama's camp: "His holiness wishes to apologize to the boy and his family as well as his many friends across the world for the hurt his words may have caused. His holiness often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras. He regrets the incident."

Siegfried emphatically stated that "it wasn't just his words. It was his actions, and that they should have also said."

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