...and--one could argue--subservient to it.
This is why the Orange Abomination never needed to be a "good Christian" in the eyes of so many "Christians", but he needed to be a wealthy business man above all else. The "good works" of Christianity are completely secondary to the economy.
But capitalism is a sneaky religion of a different sort: it does not require churches built in its honor--it encourages you to build one in honor of yourself; it does not have scriptures and messages--it allows the world to express itself through trade; it does not seek justice or hold grudges against other people or religions--it allows the "free market" to do those things.
A modern human makes far more bank transactions than any other religious act. New homes, college degrees, medical care, and pleasure come not from prayer but from the bank. Humans may try to conflate the two by saying they prayed for the money and were rewarded, but we all know deep down that you can remove the prayer and still buy the house--while you can not pay for a house with only prayer.
But like all religions the outcome depends entirely on what humans do with it. We wake up today in a world built by capitalism. We enjoy a lot of what it has built, but we also suffer from its ills.
The sad reality is that we have not been taken over by a tyrant, but we elevated one of the high priests of capitalism to the highest political office we have--not to do any good works but to lower prices and create wages. For so many the heinous actions of this high priest--including sexual assault, theft, paying off a porn star, killing innocent children across the world, etc., were all just fine until gas hit $4 a gallon.
Capitalism--it turns out--does not move in mysterious ways.
= new reply since forum marked as read