A correction: when I try to bridge together the ppp interface (tun0) and the existing rl0 interface, I don't get a SIOCFLAGSsomething error as I mentioned in my original post, rather a "invalid argment":
r...@firewall01:~ # ifconfig bridge0 create r...@firewall01:~ # brconfig bridge0 add rl0 r...@firewall01:~ # brconfig bridge0: flags=0<> priority 32768 hellotime 2 fwddelay 15 maxage 20 holdcnt 6 proto rstp rl0 flags=3<LEARNING,DISCOVER> port 1 ifpriority 0 ifcost 0 Addresses (max cache: 100, timeout: 240): r...@firewall01:~ # brconfig bridge0 add tun0 brconfig: bridge0: tun0: Invalid argument