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Ben Pollock #fundie #pratt #wingnut #psycho religionnews.com

Faith was no less present at the Ellipse, where a speaker named Ben Pollock repeatedly held a Bible aloft to cheers. In an interview with RNS, Pollock said two of his children had served time in prison for their actions at the Capitol five years ago and that he had been “preaching in prisons for years.” He told RNS, “There was that inner small voice that called us to the Capitol that day. It was about truth, and it’s a truth that’ll set you free.”

The Bible that Pollock carried was the “God Bless the USA Bible,” a version that includes the Declaration of Independence and other U.S. historical documents along with the Christian Scriptures. The edition, inspired by country singer Lee Greenwood’s song of the same name, was endorsed by Trump when it was published in 2024, and the president has made money off its sale.

“Donald Trump promoted this because at one point in America, we all could say a prayer together — the Lord’s Prayer,” Pollock said. “It would be in unison. It didn’t matter what church you were belonging to. You knew that Lord’s Prayer out of this Bible. It did deliver us from evil, and it still will deliver us from evil if we’ll pray it.

Russian SVR (Civilian Intelligence Service) #fundie #conspiracy religionnews.com

“Antichrist in a Cassock,” “Antichrist of Constantinople” and “Devil Incarnate” were among the terms Russia’s foreign intelligence service used to attack the spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Bartholomew I, accusing him of meddling in Ukraine and trying to push the Russian Orthodox Church out of the Baltic states.

In a statement released Jan. 12, the agency, known by its Russian initials SVR, wrote: “Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who dismembered Orthodox Ukraine, continues his schismatic activities within the Orthodox Church. Now he has set his dark eye on the Baltic states. This ‘devil incarnate’ is obsessed with ousting Russian Orthodoxy from the Baltic states, establishing in its place church structures completely under the control of the Phanar,” referring to the Istanbul neighborhood where Bartholomew is headquartered.