Jade Goody – a saint for our times?
For those blissfully unaware of who Jade Goody was, let me reprise. She was a contestant on a series of Big Brother (UK) where even by the standards of that show, her ignorance and general insensitivity made her a subject of national debate. After leaving the big brother house, she became one of those modern breed of celebrities – i.e. famous for being famous, rather than for being talented or being useful in some other way. She later went on to become both famous and notorious after her racist bullying of Shilpa Shetty (who?) in ‘Celebrity’ Big Brother. Jade has recently died of cancer, a result of ingnoring medical advice to have follow-up treatment after pre-cancerous cells were found in her. While Jade Goody paid the ultimate price for her jaw-dropping ignorance, to her great credit, she did not seek to shut out the media, which in life had made her a millionaire, out of her dying, and some good may have come from this.
She was a very stupid woman who became very lucky, she made a lot of money… and then, as must happen to us all, her luck ran out.
A simple enough story you might think. But not for Bishop Jonathan Blake – or, as he prefers to refer to himself on his blog, THE MOST REVEREND JONATHAN CLIVE BLAKE THE PRESIDING ARCHBISHOP OF THE OPEN EPISCOPAL CHURCH B.A. ( Honours ), Dip. Pastoral Studies.
Wow! BA hons eh? They obviously don’t hand bishoprics out like candy. What does the massive brain of the Most Reverend Blake have to say about Jade on is blog? http://nhsblogdoc.blogspot.com/2009/03/jade-goody-lessons-to-be-learnt.html
JADE – THE PEOPLE’S SAINT
She demonstrated a holiness that was real and accessible and that has touched so many lives for good. Now tens of thousands of women across this country will have smear tests and thousands, with early treatment, will eradicate their cancer; hundreds of destitute and orphaned ‘railway children’ in India have received her charitable help; she lit a torch, visible across the world, of hope, resilience and faith, even amidst the gathering darkness of her imminent death; she did her utmost to provide for her children’s well being in the future, providing them with opportunities she never had; she laughed in the face of death and gave all those who are battling cancer an example of how best to make the most of their final days; she broke the final taboo and prompted us all to think and speak about dying and death; she confessed her faith and was confident of heaven and promised to stay close to her loved ones beyond the grave.
I do wonder how saintly the Most Reverend Blake would have thought Jade if she had stayed poor on the council estate she had come from – instead of a living in a £1,000,000 house – or if she had not publicly converted to Christianity the moment she was faced with the reality of her mortality.
Jade is perhaps a saint for our time, ignorant and crass but redeemed through the power of money and ‘celebrity’… it is all too easy to see how delighted the church was with her childish public conversion to Christianity as the terrified 27-year-old faced death. Now that’s the kind of example the church really wants.
