Using "religious symbolism" in a planned Ohio memorial to victims of The Holocaust may result in claims of unconstitutional government promotion of religion, a state official has warned. Richard Finan, chairman of the Ohio Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, suggested the state could "get sued right and left."
For crying out loud. Unfortunately, Finan probably is correct - but that does not make the situation right. Not recognizing Nazi Germany's primary targets in its campaign of extermination were Jews would negate the memorial's purpose - to remind people of the danger of religious preferences and biases dictated by a government.
Indeed, inclusion of, say, a Star of David on the memorial would bring complaints from some who want to erase all connections between the state and any churches. But how, then, would the monument's important message be conveyed? By an inscription that 6 million members of a specific faith the naming of which would be politically incorrect were murdered by the Nazis?
What about other victims of Hitler's hate? Would mention of homosexuals on the memorial be seen as a government endorsement of that lifestyle? Of course not.
All victims of Nazi murders - and millions were not Jews - should be memorialized. But allowing misguided notions of separation of church and state to minimize the focus on Jews would be stupid - and wrong.
