A physicist and popular sci-fi writer speaks out: The religious right's bible thumpers are destroying the Republican party

This weekend, I had the opportunity to meet James C. Glass.  He's got an impressive background, having a 35-year career as a professor of physics, department head and dean at North Dakota State University and Eastern Washington University.  After writing 75 technical papers on his research in molecular bio-physics and superconductivity, he branched out into fiction writing and won the 1990 grand prize in the Writers of the Future Contest.  He writes full-time now, and has published over 60 stories in anthologies and magazines, as well as four story collections and eight novels.  His latest work is called Branegate, which is available on Amazon.

Jim gave me permission to publish here on God Discussion the following letter that he sent to the Republican party.   It speaks for many of us who were once Republicans.

James C. Glass

December 10, 2012

Republican National Committee
310 First Street SE
Washington, D.C. 20003

To Whom it may Concern:

I have been a registered Republican all my voting life, was an active worker in the Nixon and Reagan campaigns. My father-in-law was a thousand-dollar-a-plate donor until the day he died. I believe in self-reliance, hard work, independence, and the smallest government necessary to do what needs to be done.

Having said that, the last time I voted for a Republican at any level was when Bush ran for his second term. I despised the man for his arrogance, hawkish and anti-science attitudes, and his poor judgment in getting us involved with other people’s wars. I voted for him only because I regarded his democratic challenger as a traitor to his country.

The recent speculations about why the GOP lost the election have sickened me, with excuses such as fraud, voter payoffs and changing demographics. The party lost the election because its platform and policies are wrong, and do not represent the will of the people it is supposed to serve. It has become the party of the rich, the influential, uncompromising fanatics and ignorant, moralizing bible-thumpers. I am reminded of Barry Goldwater’s warning decades ago of the bad things that would happen to the party if the ‘preachers’ took over. And sadly, this has happened.

We are rapidly losing our world leadership in science, and our education system is a shambles. There are serious efforts underway to teach creationism in the schools, and poo-poo pure science. Prominent Republicans are involved. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio publicly refutes the scientifically determined age of our planet, and is an influential member on the Senate Science and Space subcommittee for Science and Transportation. Rep. Paul C. Broun of Georgia has been quoted as saying that science theories are lies from the pit of hell, and the earth was created 9000 years ago. And the GOP has put this man on the House Science Committee! Shame on the party, and shame on the voters who elected these people in the first place. Does the GOP even realize the damage being done to the party when people like this open their mouths? Must the GOP also be the party of idiots and damn fools?

There are things the party must do: get rid of the preachers, the moralists, the religious extremists who work to destroy science in this country, and move back to the middle politically to represent all the people and not just a few. One election has been lost, but more are coming. If Congress continues to behave as it has for the past two years, my hope is we’ll have nothing but democrats in it within the next two years. And I will personally vote Democratic from city level to federal until I see progressive change in the GOP.

Sincerely Yours,
James C. Glass

D. Beeksma

One of the growing crowd of American "nones" herself, Deborah is a prolific writer who finds religion, spirituality and the impact of belief (and non-belief) on culture inspiring, fascinating and at times, disturbing. She hosts the God Discussion show and handles the site's technical work. Her education and background is in business, ecommerce and law.

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