- A $200 question about a notable Bible verse stumped three Jeopardy! contestants.
- A clip of the episode went viral as some claimed the country had lost touch with Christianity.
If you can finish this Bible verse, you may be smarter than three recent Jeopardy! contestants.
On Tuesday night, contestants faced this question: "Matthew 6:9 says, 'Our Father, which art in heaven,' This 'be thy name.'"
It was billed as an easy $200 question under the category "Dadjectives," but it still stumped all three contestants, who didn't even attempt to answer the question.
After a few moments of awkward silence, host Mayim Bialik recited the answer, saying, "Hallowed be thy name."
—CNN (@CNN) June 17, 2023
The brief clip went viral on Twitter, with some decrying it as evidence that the country had lost touch with Christianity.
"This may seem like a silly example of cultural decay. But my 5-year-old knows the entire Lord's Prayer and loves to recite it at dinner time," one account tweeted.
Another asked, "How would anyone not know "hallowed" to be the answer? Allowing society to push GOD from everything was the beginning of the end."
Franklin Graham — the evangelical son of late pastor Billy Graham who serves as President and CEO of Samaritan's Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association — took to Twitter, sharing a Fox News article about the episode.
"We have lost so much Biblical literacy & basic awareness of the things of God's Word. This moving away from Biblical values will equal double jeopardy for our nation," Graham tweeted.
In the 1970s, some 90% of Americans identified as Christian, but that number fell to 64% by 2020, according to the Pew Research Center. By 2070, between 35% and 54% of the population is predicted to identify as Christian, according to Pew's study.
Meanwhile, according to a Gallup poll, Americans' belief in God has also dipped from 98% in the 1960s to 81% in 2022.