While Alex Trebek may have held all the cards in his hands as he stood at that podium night after night in an Armani suit, it is the Lord, in fact, who says, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me” (Job 38:3).
On November 8, 2020, a man of widespread fame passed into eternity at the age of 80 and met his maker. This man was known for answers and questions. He gave statements of fact and expected the right questions in response. This man was Alex Trebek, longstanding host of the game show Jeopardy!
While I have spent many hours as a Jeopardy! fan, after his death I wondered what Alex Trebek believed. Was this man who loved knowledge a Christian? What I have seen in print, if accurate, doesn’t give evidence he had an understanding of the truth found in the Bible about God, man, salvation, and eternity.
For all of those 36 years of answers and questions, it appears this master of trivia got the most important questions wrong. I found quotes in various articles, quotes taken from Trebek’s autobiography which was released in July, and which I have not read.
One article noted, “He doesn’t believe in any particular god or ‘a particular version of the afterlife.’” Another article mentioned his reference to prayer in a video, but compared that with what he wrote in his book: “A year after his cancer diagnosis, Trebek released a video in which he said that giving up his battle with cancer ‘would certainly have been a betrayal of my faith in God and the millions of prayers that have been said on my behalf.’ Unfortunately, the story doesn’t stop there. In his autobiography, Trebek writes: ‘Am I a believer? Well, I believe we are all part of the Great Soul—what some call God. We are God, and God is us. We are one with our maker. How do I know this? It’s not that I know it. It’s that I feel it.’ He added, ‘But do I pray to a specific god? Do I anticipate a particular version of the afterlife? No, I do not.’”
