By Andy Stanton-Henry
Any Jeopardy fans out there?
I have good memories of watching Jeopardy with my dad. And Ashlyn and I will often stream episodes, keeping score to see who will have to do an undesirable chore. Like: the loser has to do two loads of dishes tonight. We are actually pretty evenly matched so it all comes down to the categories. She’s better with nature categories; I’m better with history. Bible categories are anybody’s game!
We are nerds but God loves us.
Jeopardy has been around for a long time. You may not know that there was a version of Jeopardy that preceded the one hosted by Alex Trebek. The idea for the show was born on an airplane ride in 1963 with the famous game show creator Merv Griffin and his wife Julann.
They were mulling over the idea of a new game show but struggling due to the reputation that quiz game shows had developed after a recent scandal revealed that many such shows were actually rigged. Answers were being fed to certain contestants to make sure they won. So the Griffins needed to set this quiz show apart from the others and make sure people trusted it was authentic.
At some point on the flight, Julann had an idea. They would flip the conventional design of a typical game show. Whereas they typically provide the question and the contestants respond with the answer, this new show would provide the answer and the contestants would have to respond with the question.
This design would set Jeopardy apart from other quiz game shows and help viewers trust that the game was authentic.
Thus the biggest rule in Jeopardy was born: the contestants have to answer in the form of a question.
In a time when so much of religion is seen as judgmental, hypocritical, and oppressive, I wonder if we should embrace being a tradition that “answers in the form of a question.” Maybe, as with the original Jeopardy vision, we would set ourselves apart and develop more trust with seekers and cynics.
Thankfully, we have some good examples.
Jesus is the answer, many of us would say. But he’s also the question. He was constantly asking questions. In fact, it’s calculated that he asked more than 300 questions in the gospels, and answered…3.
And our Quaker faith has the time-tested practice of using queries, rather than relying on lengthy faith statements or fossilized creeds.
Healthy Quaker leadership places high value on questions. In a time of quick fixes and easy answers (where everything is Googleable), may we be a people who linger with living questions, embracing them as tools of the Spirit for our guidance and formation. May we welcome the questions of genuine seekers, not jumping in with pat answers or canned responses, but trusting that we can live into Truth together.
If the search for answers in your meeting, church, or organization is leading only to arguments and anxiety, maybe it’s time to try the Jeopardy and Jesus way.
What question is alive in you?
What questions do you hear folks asking about Quakerism or faith?
How do we promote the practice of “living the questions” (Rilke) instead of settling for easy answers?