UPDATE, June 29, 2023: This article was incorrectly marked as News. It has since been updated to reflect the correct category, Commentary. We apologize for any confusion.
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
It sure seems a reflection of where the nation is spiritually that none of three contestants on a recent episode of “Jeopardy” could name a word from the opening of the Lord’s Prayer.
Host Mayim Bialik said to the contestants, “Matthew 6:9 says, ‘Our Father, which art in heaven,’ this ‘be thy name.”
So the correct response was, “What is hallowed?” but no one got it. Wow!
Many people responded on Twitter writing they were surprised that none of the contestants knew.
“Can I admit to being genuinely shocked that not one Jeopardy! contestant recognized The Lord’s Prayer?” one tweeted.
Can I admit to being genuinely shocked that not one Jeopardy! contestant recognized The Lord’s Prayer?
— SaraKateW (@SaraKateW) June 13, 2023
Another wrote, “Did anyone else notice that ALL THREE Jeopardy contestants tonight, couldn’t even fill in the blank, one word, on the opening line of The Lord’s Prayer? Kind of fits in today’s Biden America. So sad.”
Did anyone else notice that ALL THREE Jeopardy contestants tonight, couldn’t even fill in the blank, one word, on the opening line of The Lord’s Prayer? Kind of fits in today’s Biden America. So sad.
— Dan Ayars (@ayars_dan) June 14, 2023
“How can all 3 adults who made it to be contestants on the show not know at least the start of the lord’s prayer (hallowed)…” still another asked.
@Jeopardy How can all 3 adults who made it to be contestants on the show not know at least the start of the lord’s prayer (hallowed) or Elizabeth Taylor was in National Velvet?
— Vibrani (@VibraniNora) June 14, 2023
One Twitter user observed, “While it may not be a sign of the end times, [it] DEFINITELY speaks volumes about Americans and their faith…or lack of.”
Jeopardy and The Lord’s Prayer.
While it may not be a sign of the end times, if DEFINITELY speaks volumes about Americans and their faith…or lack of.— NC_Boy59 (@NCBoy59) June 14, 2023
As a refresher, the entire prayer as found in Matthew chapter 6 in the New King James Version of the Bible reads: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
“Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
Though it’s called the Lord’s Prayer, it could more aptly be named the Disciples Prayer, because it was how Jesus Christ taught his followers to pray, so they’d have a good model.
It is likely the most recited prayer in all of Christendom.
However, it has not been spoken nearly as often in America in recent decades as it was in the past.
The U.S. Supreme Court in the 1963 case School District of Abington Township, Pennsylvania v. Schempp ruled that Bible reading and a recitation of the Lord’s Prayer before the school day violated the First Amendment.
That decision came on top of Engel v. Vitale the previous year, finding a nondenominational prayer also violated the establishment clause.
So apparently the secularization of America, which began in earnest in the 1960s, has borne fruit in our day, 60 years later, on “Jeopardy,” no less.
The evidence of an absence of God in U.S. culture can be seen in the crazy gender theories arising and the lack of respect for the dignity of human life, from the womb to the tomb.
The Bible says in the book of Genesis that God created them male and female in his divine image and that he knit us together in our mothers’ wombs.
But Americans aren’t relying as much on the Bible for instruction on how to lead the best, God-glorifying life.
The annual American Worldview Inventory for 2023 published by the Cultural Research Center finds just 4 percent of the nation’s adults hold to a complete biblical worldview. Many believe parts of it.
The CRC identified seven cornerstones of the Christian worldview, including a biblical understanding of God; that all human beings are sinful by nature; that Jesus Christ is the only answer to that sin, providing forgiveness for sin through his death on the cross to those who believe and accept it; and that the Bible is a true, reliable and relevant as a moral guide to life.
See all seven of the cornerstones here.
The CRC found that only 50 percent of Americans embrace the true nature of God revealed in the Bible; 27 percent recognize human beings are sinful; 35 percent believe Jesus is the only way to salvation; and 46 percent accept the Bible as true and reliable.
These are some of the key tenets confessed as true in the Lord’s Prayer.
The CRC found the younger the adult was in their survey, the less likely the person was to embrace all seven, or even a majority, of the cornerstones of a biblical worldview.
The American Worldview Inventory 2023 was conducted in January with a sample of 2,000 adults, 18 and over. The margin of error is +/- 2 percentage points.
So let recent ignorance of the Lord’s Prayer on “Jeopardy” be a canary in the coal mine.
There’s a lot of work to do to restore a firm biblical worldview to the majority of Americans.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
