It's a change from one where the churches and congregations had mutual obligations to one where the congregants were customers and the churches were entrepreneurs They had to start selling something and what they sold was one of the most potent drugs of all - moral superiority
Even better - you get to demonstrate superiority twice - once in being better than the object of pity the second time in dispensing the pity The only thing that could endanger the system is running out of objects of pity but don't worry - the 3rd world is full of them, right?