Bruce Gleason Featured in OC Weekly Newspaper March 16, 2012

Bruce Gleason Featured in OC Weekly Newspaper

By Hemant Mehta
March 16, 2012

Take a look at the subject of the OC Weekly‘s cover story: Bruce Gleason of the Backyard Skeptics!

Bruce Gleason, a 57-year-old Villa Park resident, has become something of a legend in the community of godless Orange Countians who read his quotes in news reports, devour his writing on his website and watch his public-access, cable-TV show on atheism. But while his method may be satire, his message is as serious as sin, he says: defending the skeptic community in Orange County…

…

When asked why Backyard Skeptics doesn’t pour more resources into attacking Islam, Gleason chuckles. “We’re not stupid,” he says. “We’re not going to put up pictures of Mohammad. . . . The Muslims to the Christians are like the Russian secret police to the FBI. You don’t fuck with the Russian police; they’ll cut off your fuckin’ balls. Literally, that does happen. Christians or the FBI are not going to do that. They might waterboard you.”

It’s a positive article, though Ray Comfort makes a cameo near the end… overall, pretty good publicity for Gleason and his group.

In case you need a reminder, here’s a sampling of the billboards put up by Backyard Atheists:

Bus shelter ads from July, 2011:

One featuring a smiling atheist (August, 2011):

This one encourages rejection of all superstition (September, 2011):

This one went directly after faith (September, 2011):

This controversial billboard from October, 2011 misquoted Thomas Jefferson:

This one asked, “What myths do you see?” (January, 2012)

Finally, this one came out right around Valentines Day (February, 2012):



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  • I like the cutting off your balls comment, it defiantly adds something, lol

  • Anonymous-Sam

    Here’s one I could add to the superstitions one:  Holding a stick above your head does not improve how well your team fights (Exodus 17:11-13).

  • Anonymous

     His comments about Islam were, frankly, rather weaksauce.  Islamic violence in the U.S. is minor compared to Christian violence (and neither group targets atheists for extremist violence in any case; against atheists, Christians prefer bullying and social and economic pressure for the most part, and most American Muslims just make a casual denouncement of atheism and are done with it).  Are there reasons for focusing more on Christianity than Islam within the U.S.?  Yes, but fear of reprisal is, frankly, not a good one.

  • Michael Appleman

    I agree it is a little weak, but people overseas can and have been killed by the backlash for something that happened on the other side of the world.

  • Rob

     I am an atheist too. But, I think the atheist community, (if there is one), would be better served by having a group which leads by example. I think anti-religious propaganda will only lead to angering religious people. And, I really doubt any of them will be converted to atheism anytime soon.  One example of how to spend that money would be to hold an “annual atheist convention” at the fairgrounds. Use the money to put up a big sign on the freeway advertising the convention.
    Then, during the convention, people can gather to share ideas, on what the best course of action would be for atheism in our nation. 

  • Rob

    Oh, let me re-phrase that last comment a bit. I think anti-religious propaganda will  largely lead to angering religious people. And I really doubt too many of them will be converted to atheism anytime soon.

  • Sweet, the poster with my face on it lol

  • tarheelatheist

    Christians have no problem with anti-atheist propaganda so why should we worry about offending them when they have no compunction about offending us.  It isn’t about converting Christians–it’s about reaching out to secularists in the larger community who might be unaware of opportunities in their areas to meet like-minded people.