Katie Price is an English celebrity, former model and businesswoman. She was the most successful page three girl featured in The Sun newspaper. She is notorious for her outrageous and rather tawdry lifestyle. A role model to some and an embarrassment to others, she is brutally frank about herself and asserted this in an interview: “I am a rich chav. You couldn’t get any more chav than me. I’m the only person in Britain to own a bespoke pink Land Rover with crystals on it, and I love it. I’m a chav but I’m just lucky that I’ve got money with it.” In 2012, Price’s net worth was estimated at £45 million.
Background Notes
Katie Price is a celebrity whose impulsive and chaotic lifestyle intrigues many. Katie is living in an individualistic and materialist story. This is how she outlined her faith: “No one can live without money. Money and religion are the big things, and that’s it, and I stay away from religion. We love to earn money, who doesn’t? It gets you things and it’s security.” Many do not notice that this is a confession of faith. Instead of trusting in Jesus, Katie trusts in the money god. We should not be surprised that Katie has earned millions of pounds as she faithfully serves this popular god. Her faith is similar to the rich fool in the New Testament (Luke 12:13-21). In this parable Jesus challenges a selfish and materialistic mindset – ‘eat, drink and be merry’. The rich fool’s monologue is infused with ‘I’ six times and ‘my’ four times. The rich fool is oblivious in his egocentric musings. “I’ll put my barns here, my donkeys there and my jacuzzi over there.” Is Katie a rich fool? This is how you can begin a conversation about Jesus. Tell people that you disagree with Katie’s faith. Expose the false money god and then contrast faith in Jesus with Katie’s false faith.
Four Ways of Looking at the Story
Materialist faith: “We believe that Katie is a shrewd and successful businesswoman. She is following the money. She is a role model.”
Relativist faith: “We believe that Katie is following her heart. Well done Katie.”
Karma faith: “We believe that Katie must have done very well in previous lives.”
Christian faith: “We believe that Katie is following the seductive money god. She must repent, believe in Jesus and get baptised.”
Questions
1) How would you appraise Katie’s faith?
2) Why does it sound odd to claim that Katie has faith?
3) Why does Katie put her security in her huge fortune?
Mark is a lively storyteller and the author of four books, including The Spy, the Rat and the Bed of Nails: Creative Ways of Talking about Christian Faith. His work is focused on storytelling and how this can help us to communicate the Christian faith. He has written many articles for the Baptist Times, RE Today, Youthscape, Direction magazine and the Christian Teachers Journal.
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