LizzieMaine
Bartender
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And all this ties neatly back to the discussion of the Colonial era, in that the early Puritans were practitioners of a cold, austere, decidedly un-Christian belief that poverty was the result of moral failing. Their belief in predestination led them to conclude that the prosperous were blessed with plenty due to their innate moral virtue as the Elect of God, while the poor were impoverished as a public display of their rejection by God. They would have benefited greatly from a careful study of the Book of Job, but they were too busy displaying their innate moral virtue by hanging witches and swindling the godless heathen savages to take the time to do it.
The Puritans may be long gone, but the influence of their beliefs continues to permeate much of American "Christian" culture in that you will still find many people who will try to argue that the wages of personal sin is poverty, even though no such idea was ever taught by Christ.
The Puritans may be long gone, but the influence of their beliefs continues to permeate much of American "Christian" culture in that you will still find many people who will try to argue that the wages of personal sin is poverty, even though no such idea was ever taught by Christ.