Being healthy is incomparable to being wealthy, but the two concepts are relative to each other. Being wealthy is related to being healthy as more wealth provides an opportunity for individuals to maintain a healthy life. The poor are more susceptible to poor health because of the lack of adequate resources to cater for this need. Spirituality is also related to health and wealth, whereby some beliefs may minimize the need to seek out professional health services and be aggressive towards wealth making opportunities. Therefore, spirituality may either dull the ideas of health and wealth or reinforce them positively according to the belief system adopted. This paper focuses on the relationship of wealth with regard to spirituality and health, critiquing the article by Miller (2013). This critique aims to assess the impact of wealth in need for spirituality in wealthy individuals compared to the poor and the need to be healthy.
The study by Miller (2013) employed a qualitative approach in its methodology through interviews with eleven health care providers in the Short Creek community. The study also applied historical data mainly from the Stanford University libraries. The article by Miller (2013) examines how the spiritual beliefs of the Short Creek community in Colorado. A large number of people in the Short Creek community are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). Members of the FLDS share similar practices to the Amish regarding their views on medical care and wealth. One of the major notable aspects that stand out among members of the FLDS is their isolation to the conventional world. Members of the FLDS limit their interaction with the outside world, denying themselves critical health services, including medical insurance, because of their religious beliefs. Another notable practice unique to members of the FLDS is polygamy. The community also believes in a united order promoting equality where there are are no rich or poor.
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Despite observing the united order practices of equality, most of the Short Creek community members are poor since men are mostly the sole breadwinners for their large families. Men are also the decision-makers, and their main responsibility is providing rather than caring. Because of the isolated nature of the Short Creek community, most of their practices are limited to their spiritual belief that everything that happens is God's will include medical incidents. This belief system portrays the connection between spirituality and poverty, which consequently affects health decisions in the community. According to the study by Miller (2013), because of their fatalism attitude, the Short Creek community disregard conditions like infertility.
To some extent, the belief system practiced by polygamist's communities like the FLDS appears primitive. Limited resources create dependence in the community, leaving its members with no option but to follow beliefs imposed in the community. In a sense, the members of such communities are brainwashed into believing that the government is the enemy and therefore denying themselves proper healthcare in retaliation. Consequently, it reinforces the idea that wealth affects the need for spirituality. For the poor people, including the Short Creek community, the need for spirituality is imposed rather than offered the freedom to choose similar to health care beliefs and practices.
Because wealthy people have sufficient resources, the choice of spirituality is optional and unrelated to social class and wealth compared to the poor revealed in the study by Miller (2013). Because wealthy people have a choice regarding spirituality, they can limit their interpretation of various practices and beliefs explicitly imposed regarding health and living. Wealthy people are also well informed and chose religions that are more suited for the mainstream world hence maintaining their social status and high medical standards.
Reference
Miller, A. C., & Karkazis, K. (2013). Health beliefs and practices in an isolated polygamist community of southern Utah. Journal of religion and health , 52 (2), 597-609.
