It’s the Trinity!

I had to post this.  Watching a Jeopardy rerun tonight, with Chuck Todd, host of Meet the Press, along with Log Cabin Republican S.E. Cupp and novelist Jonathan Franzen as the contestants.  Now, let’s assume that we expect the best and brightest of our culture, the ones we turn to for information and opinion, to have a basic grasp.  Just basic.  They don’t have to be experts on everything.  They don’t need the equivalent of a PhD in every conceivable discipline on the planet.  But they need at least a basic level of knowledge on the subjects that matter in the major stories of our time.

So the answer dealt with the author of the Christmas carol O Little Town of Bethlehem (one of my favorites).  He pastored two churches that shared a common name for the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Easy enough.  The Trinity.  Holy Trinity to be exact.  Even as an agnostic in the lazy, hazy days of the mid-80s, I knew what the Trinity was.  I couldn’t have told you much more, but I knew the Trinity as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Alex read the clue and then…crickets chirping.  Not one contestant knew.  They had no clue what the name is for the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Leaders.  People at the top of their game.  Those who are called upon by our media culture to shape and inform public opinion. Those who receive awards and accolades and wine and dine with movers and shakers. And they didn’t know the equivalent of an elementary Sunday School lesson about the Christian Faith.

Food for thought.