On Tuesday's episode of "Jeopardy!," a unanimous blank was drawn when the three contestants were asked about the Lord's Prayer:
"Matthew 6:9 says, 'Our Father which art in heaven, -- this -- be thy name.'"
No one buzzed in to answer or even to venture a guess, and their silence quickly sparked numerous discussions.
Noting that even non-Christians are familiar with that passage and know the missing word was "Hallowed," Dr. Ray Pritchard of Keep Believing Ministries called it remarkable that no one knew the answer.
"Were there no Catholics? Were there no Lutherans? Were there no Methodists on the panel that day? Look, people who don't go to church, people who don't read the Bible, people who don't even believe in God -- they know the Lord's Prayer because they've heard it so many times," he told American Family Radio. "I'm stunned not only that they didn't know it, but that nobody even took a guess."
Ed Vitagliano, executive vice president of American Family Association, agreed.
"This is on the level of how many commandments are there in the book of Exodus; everyone's heard of the 10 Commandments," he said. "This is further proof that as our nation continues to secularize, you're gonna have more and more biblical illiteracy."
Still, he admitted that "this is on the illiteracy scale that I just didn't know was possible."
"These are smart people that make it on this show," Vitagliano added. "They know a lot about a lot of stuff."
He wondered what this implies about America's faith.
Editor's Note: The American Family Association is the parent organization of the American Family News Network, which operates AFN.net.
