AMERICAN BIBLE CHALLENGE

Jeff Foxworthy hosts THE AMERICAN BIBLE CHALLENGE, a superb, funny, heartrending game show on GSN (formerly the Game Show Network). Beginning Aug. 23, the new game show is a tournament with 18 teams, who will compete to be named champions.

In the premiere episode, three groups are competing for $25,000 to give to their favorite charity. Each group is introduced with a video background on its three contestants.

The first group of three young men, the Sacramento Saints from Sacramento, California, features a young man who came to Christ while fighting in Iraq. The second group, Mini’s Food Pantry, is comprised of three African American women who are struggling to feed the hungry. The third group, Gospel Geezers, want to give their money to Samaritan’s purse.

The game show features a lot of funny quips by Jeff Foxworthy and a variety of formats for Bible questions. Some of the questions are phrased as Facebook questions, such as, Whose Facebook page would get a message from a burning bush? Other questions say, did it say this in THE LORD OF THE RINGS or the Bible? And, the questions are not easy. Finally, there’s a 60-second countdown for the two finalist groups to identify women in the Bible.

There’s excitement, fun and prayer in the opening one-hour episode. The young men from Sacramento take an early lead. The Geezers catch up. And, the audience’s heart goes out to Mini’s Food Pantry.

I have been involved in and watched these types of shows since the 1940s because my father hosted a show like this, where he played a character named Father Knickerbocker. Although I’ve not seen all the game shows and am highly biased, I found this show funny, exciting, and even tear-jerking. The program kept my interest. It was clean, wholesome, and upstanding. Bravo! THE AMERICAN BIBLE CHALLENGE is terrific.