Also, hundreds of years of prosperity gospel. If you’re poor or suffering, then you must have done something wrong because God is punishing you. If you’re thriving, then you must be good because God is rewarding you. That’s one reason why the police go after poor people more heavily. There more likely to pull over an old beater car than they are a new pickup truck. So if you want to commit crimes just drive a newer truck because they won’t even look at you. Even better if you put a thin line sticker somewhere.
Not “hundreds of years”, don’t let them make you think it’s old. The idea that “God wants you to be wealthy and healthy and being poor and sick is because you displeased God” only really goes back to the start of the last century, and gained a lot of traction with the Jesus People type revivals in the 70s, when faith healing became a serious mainstream thing in the US. The larger portion of devout US Christians were largely fairly apolitical to left-leaning until about the 50s.
