Conservative Christian radio host Matt Barber says that an atheist group should be punched “in the mouth” after they filed a complaint that sought to stop a Michigan man from erecting a nativity scene on public land.

In 2008, the County Road Commission in Warren had denied John Satawa a permit to place his nativity scene in a public median because the Freedom from Religion Foundation complained that it violated the separation of church and state. That led to a federal lawsuit and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled earlier this year that Satawa could continue to display his creche.

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On Monday, Barber blasted the Freedom from Religion Foundation for trying to “recreate an America in their own secular, humanist, self-image.”

Barber, an attorney who focuses on constitutional law, encouraged listeners to contact Liberty Counsel’s toll-free number if they discovered any “religious cleansing” in their town.

“You know, what do you do with a bully?” he explained. “If a bully keeps getting his way and intimidating kids on the playground and nobody stands up for themselves then the bully is encouraged and emboldened and continues to bully more and more people. But when a little kid is being bullied and he turns around and punches the bully in the mouth — metaphorically speaking, of course — then the bully is oftentimes proven to be a paper tiger.”

Right Wing Watch on Monday pointed out that Barber has also called for the “secularist left” to punched “in the mouth.”

“Yes, of course he merely means it ‘metaphorically,'” Right Wing Watch’s Kyle Mantyla wrote. “Because everyone know that nothing teaches a bully a message like being ‘metaphorically’ punched in the mouth.”

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MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said on Monday that it was actually the conservative talk radio hosts who needed to be “punched in the face.”

Watch this video from Liberty Counsel Faith & Freedom, broadcast Dec. 10, 2012.