So I recently took a sociology class at University and I found it supremely interesting. Not really relevant to the thread in its entirety, but it's worth mentioning for background.

In said Sociology course we talked at length about Protestant Ethic. For the unfamiliar, the Protestant Ethic is theorized to be the foundation for capitalism. Basically, 18th century Calvinists in the west thought that having wealth in great quantities was a sign that God favored them, since they believed in determinism. Because all things were predetermined, they were meant to be wealthy. This ideology lead to the structure of business being centered on the proprietors keeping the majority of the wealth made from business, rather than the laborers like in trade and craftsmen guilds of earlier societies.

The ironic part of this is how adamantly the New Testament insists that wealth in large quantities is evil. Like, Jesus said in 3 out of the 4 gospels that wealthy people were inherently immoral, would be denied heaven, and were just generally bad. He encouraged charity to the highest possible degree, insisted only the generous could enter heaven, and pretty much entirely condemned everything that was made virtue by capitalism.

Yet, capitalism gets its strongest support from Christians. Not even rich Christians who would actually benefit from continuing the system as is, but like working class Christians who are meant to be the ones that rich people should help. It's really funny to me, but I'm curious about your opinions on it.