A Christian worship event at Auburn University broke out in joy last week, and over two hundred students took part in a spontaneous baptism event afterward. The Stream’s Al Perrotta told some of the story in Monday’s Brew — including the lawyer-letter the Freedom from Religion Foundation shot off to the university, calling the event “coercive,” “unconstitutional,” even an “abuse of power” committed by Christian profs and athletic coaches who took part.

You’d think they’d have a better idea what “abuse of power” means. They know how to practice it well enough, or at least how to try. They’d gladly do it all the more if they actually had the power they keep trying to throw around.

What we have here, in other words, is bullying. The methods are more adult from what you saw or experienced in grade school, but the rest of it is no different.

Who’s the Bully Here?

The FFRF has been bullying people this way for a long time. I found a press release much like the Auburn University letter on their website going back to June 5, 2012, a much longer one from less than a month ago, and a whole lot more in between. I picked those two out because they represent more than 170 pages that speak of bullying. Usually it’s what they consider religious bullying. That most recent one is a great example. It’s about Lifewise, a program available at hundreds of schools to provide off-campus “released time” biblical instruction for public school students. FFRF is worried: “Released time programs often encourage students to try to persuade non-attending students to join the program, leading to bullying.”

They’ve been on the lookout for this bullying for years. If it’s that bad, you’d expect they’d have dozens if not hundreds of examples. I looked. Honest. I might have missed some, but I really did look — and I found two. The worse of the two — dumping water on a trans student’s head — is rather inconveniently short on supporting evidence. I suppose you could also include the case (not linked here) where students who chose not to go to some event had to stay in study hall and do homework. Those bullying teachers! How could they do such a thing to a student?

That hasn’t kept them from raising the warning. I suppose it’s at least theoretically possible. I have no doubt that bullying is a problem, by the way, but the FFRF is specifically on the warpath after what they would call religious activities in public spaces or in publicly managed time, such as during school hours. They use an elastic definition for “bullying”: They’ll stretch it even to fit study hall if it helps make their point.

What’s the Point?

Even more than bullying, they talk up how unconstitutional all these religious activities are. You would not believe how often they use that word! They speak it with all the authority in the world. Their letter to Auburn University begins, “I am writing on behalf of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) regarding ongoing constitutional violations occurring in Auburn University’s sports programs.” It drones on at least 15 different but extremely definite ways in which it was all unconstitutional.

They cite case law proving their point. They ignore the highly relevant, very recent Supreme Court decision, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, that contradicts them on virtually every point. If a high school football coach has the constitutional right to pray with his team after a game, then a university coach certainly has the right to go to an event and speak his beliefs. Somehow the FFRF found that not worth mentioning this time.

If they really thought they had a case, then surely they could find someone with standing to bring suit against the university. I’m guessing they wouldn’t dare touch that. They wouldn’t risk losing the ability to send these threatening letters. Almost everyone knows their threats are empty growling, but what if everyone found out? (Especially their donors.)

Their legal power is weak, but they can still send blustery letters filled with dire warnings. They can still bother people with open-records information requests. And not only can they keep on standing on the edge of the playground and shouting, “My dad can beat up your dad!,” but they can still keep bragging themselves up for it.

What Do We Do With a Bully?

So how do we respond to bullying like this?

First, I’d say Al Perrotta had the best first answer in that “Brew” article: “But never mind the FFRF. We’ve hundreds of new brothers and sisters.” As far as possible, just go on enjoying life. The more we can ignore them, the less they’ll like it.

Second, since sometimes they’re doing so much damage you can’t merely ignore them, it’s okay to call in help. The Supreme Court did a good thing for us with the Kennedy decision. The FFRF wasn’t named in that case (other than a citation to another case the FFRF lost) but the case covered these sorts of actions. We could use more of that. That’s what the law is there for, or should be, at any rate.

Third, resign yourself to the fact that they’ll keep trying anyway. The Supreme Court can’t — and shouldn’t — keep the FFRF from sending letters: The same First Amendment they keep misconstruing in their hatred for Christianity protects their right to go on sending their hate mail. Funny how things work sometimes.

Fourth, it doesn’t hurt to point out obvious inconsistencies like these. You might not persuade them, but you could influence some onlookers to see what’s really going on.

Pray

Finally, pray for them as our enemies. That is exactly what they are, not because we’ve made them our enemies but because they’ve made themselves ours. Pray earnestly, with a measure of compassion. I feel less anger toward them and more pity. They raise so much ruckus, blustering on about how unconstitutional it is for Christians to be Christians in public places or public employment. They stomp their feet, they yell, and the world just ignores them. It must be frustrating. It certainly is pathetic.

Right now it is, anyway. They’re persistent. They’ve won some past battles, and they’ve done damage with them. My prayer is that they would be frustrated in all their current hatred for Christ until they finally give it up and see Him for the good God He really is.

Tom Gilson (@TomGilsonAuthor) is a senior editor with The Stream and the author or editor of six books, including the highly acclaimed Too Good To Be False: How Jesus’ Incomparable Character Reveals His Reality.