The Protestant Ethic

The history of religion in America is closely tied up with "The Protestant Ethic."
Those who serve God faithfully and who live their lives as God would want us to are rewarded by God with material success: money, big houses, status, etc. However, in the Calvinist version of this idea, those who earn these rewards have been predestined by God to be successful and to earn the rewards. We have a tendency, in this country, to favor  as human symbols those who have been financially successful, and we prefer them because God has favored them. Those who have not found material success have failed because God has not favored them. If you are poor, it's because you have not been chosen by God to succeed, you loser. This theory has been around for centuries, but in modern times, it has been most clearly propounded by sociologist and political economist Max Weber in the early twentieth century. The theory is reassuring for many people because it frees us to blame the victim or the downtrodden and allows us to praise or choose the wealthy and successful. There actually is so little empirical or philosophical support for this theory that it is not debated that much these days, although I believe I heard it mentioned a few times in local watering holes in the last presidential election. Sorry, Mitt!!!