The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Especially nowadays, with the rise in televangelists and mega-churches, it seems that preachers are increasingly getting paid for inducing fear in others. Sure, it's always been that way. Let's look at the condensed version of the age-old sermon:  "If you accept Jesus as your lord and savior, you will be saved and sent to the kingdom of heaven to join him after this life. If you don't accept him as such, however, you will be sent to the fiery pits of hell for all eternity! If this scares you and you want to continue to get scared, please donate some money to this church. Thanks." With all of the technological expansions through the years, however, such fear-inducing sermons have appeared to become more widespread and more over-the-top than ever before. Whenever something bad gets reported, such as a damaging storm, violence, an outbreak of an illness, etc., at least one preacher will say, "This could be a sign from God that the end of times is near!...

It often times befuddles me why so many people are paranoid that the federal government is coming after them. Then there are the rare occurrences when I can temporarily understand why this is. Courtesy of AOL (America Online - yes, it still exists), the following headline was showcased earlier today - "Secret Memo: Gov't Can Kill Americans." I imagine a lot of the before-mentioned paranoid folk saw that headline and thought to themselves, "See? I told everyone, but they wouldn't listen to me. This is why I stocked up on all those assault rifles, twinkies, and Ayn Rand books." If one were to actually click on the headline provided by AOL, it would lead him/her to an article at The Huffington Post , which is titled something different. This article is titled, "DOJ Drones Paper: Obama's Second-Term Cabinet, Agenda Faces New Scrutiny." Yes, the title is slightly different than the one AOL implied - "Secret Memo: Gov't Can Kill Americ...