Jade's last act is to become a Christian

Posted By: Damian Thompson at Mar 7, 2009 in The Telegraph

'Jade Goody became a Christian today, along with her two sons. Christians everywhere should be pleased that this controversial young woman's final public act was to receive the sacrament - mutually recognised by Protestants and Catholics - that admits a candidate to the Church.

Jade's baptism (I prefer that term to the more secularised "christening") will, in the words of St Paul, effect and represent her union with Christ through which she participates in his death and resurrection. This was no formality: she has been reading the Bible, and she was determined to effect this last great change in her life - and it is a great change - before dying.

Jade's entire adult life has been highlighted and distorted by exposure to the public. I was on duty as Telegraph TV critic for her very first appearance on Big Brother, and remember thinking that she was clearly too immature to handle the publicity she would receive.

In the event, she proved to be both tough and foolish; she didn't deserve either her fame or her notoriety (much of the indignation over the Shilpa Shetty business was manufactured and self-righteous). Nor, of course, did she deserve her cruel illness, which she decided to endure in public, but with surprising courage and self-awareness. She didn't adopt the tactic of so many cancer-stricken celebrities of disguising the seriousness of her condition or pretending that "beating" it was a matter of willpower.'

A well written piece on a sad story.

Perhaps the positive aspect of her fame will be that she attracts an enormous number of prayers as she passes from this world to the next. I hope so.