I agree with your points. However, I was addressing your statement about the "protestant puritan spirit" which comes across as "Protestant Puritan [Christians]

I agree with your points. However, I was addressing your statement about the "protestant puritan spirit" which comes across as "Protestant Puritan [Christians] are at fault". This is reaffirmed by the followup statement "certain traits are common across certain cultures (protestant cultures..." So if the culture was actually protestant christian, then they would follow the teaching in the bible that defines them. The fact they didn't leaves me to believe that the culture isn't actually protestant, so labeling it as such is incorrect. The number of prisoners (per-population) has grown in the US as the number of protestant christians as declined.