What benefit are they trying to achieve? All I can think of is that they want fewer people to express themselves, whether publicly or privately, in matters of conscience.
They are real life Grinches and they are motivated by envy, the only Cardinal sin that's no fun at all. Envy is an unfortunate side-effect of vanity. When someone doesn't believe in a higher power their vanity can grow into that void.
![](http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/366/1/6/how_the_grinch_llama_stole_christmas_by_inkyness-d5pxn0v.png)