To the Editor:

Pastor Russell Johnson's attacks against public schools for failing to teach that Adolf Hitler was "an avid evolutionist" thoughtlessly injects the Holocaust into a situation in which it has no place ("Shaping Politics from the Pulpits," Aug. 3).

Teaching Hitler's purported views on evolution in the science classroom insidiously implies that supporters of evolution are Nazis. Under this same absurd logic, should art students be taught that Hitler was an artist? The very idea of inserting Hitler into the science curriculum displays an appalling lack of respect for the memory of the millions exterminated by the Nazis.  Surely, the current political debate about evolution is heated enough without the needless and excessive demonization of adherents to this established scientific theory.

Pastor Russell Johnson should immediately apologize and cease the use of this offensive comparison.