Want to avoid the arrival of the Antichrist? Easy! Just stop using your smartphone, advises the Russian Orthodox Church:

In an interview shown Monday on state TV, Patriarch Kirill said the church does not oppose technological progress but is concerned that “someone can know exactly where you are, know exactly what you are interested in, know exactly what you are afraid of” and that such information could be used for centralized control of the world. “Control from one point is a foreshadowing of the coming of Antichrist, if we talk about the Christian view. Antichrist is the person who will be at the head of the world wide web that controls the entire human race,” he said.

Got that? Smartphone, convenience. Convenience, control. Control, Antichrist. (Bible chapter and verse not needed.)

Not that anyone should take Kirill seriously… He’s the same guy who claimed marriage equality rules were “similar to the laws in Nazi Germany,” sprayed holy water on government computers to avoid a virus, and blamed ISIS on “radical” secularists. This is not a man known for thinking rationally.

Besides that, if I wanted to find someone working to destroy Christianity and whose whereabouts are known to prominent Russians, I’d visit the White House.

