Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
The Many Faiths of Alex Trebek

The Many Faiths of Alex Trebek

Last updated on: September 11, 2019 at 12:01 am by David Swartz

The Many Faiths of Alex Trebek 2019-09-10T21:52:33-04:00 David Swartz

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Alex Trebek, the suave Canadian host of the television quiz show Jeopardy!, returned to television this week. Having been diagnosed with Stage Four pancreatic cancer in February, he is completed with chemotherapy and is looking good.

Sadly, the odds are still not in his favor. According to medical experts, the one-year survival rate of all stages combined is only 20 percent. It drops to seven percent for five years. But Trebek remains optimistic, saying “I’m going to fight this and I’m going to keep working, keep the faith and we’ll win. We’ll get it done.”

“Keep the faith” can mean a lot of things. Is this a case of a Hollywood celebrity unthinkingly using religious language at a vulnerable moment in life? Or does Trebek’s spiritual biography suggest something substantial behind these comments?

Trebek, now 78, grew up Catholic in Canada. At a Pennsylvania gubernatorial debate last year in October he moderated between Tom Wolf and Scott Wagner, he described attending a Catholic boarding school run by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Going off script during the debate, he riffed on the state of the Catholic Church. Joking that the only institution with lower approval ratings than the Pennsylvania Legislature was the Catholic Church, he continued amidst boos from the audience. “Two-hundred and fifty students, other boys and I, spent three years sharing the same accommodations 24/7 with 44 priests and not once in those three years was there any sexual misbehavior. Now boys are pretty sharp, we talk, we would have known. So I believe that there are Catholic priests out there who are able to minister to their congregations without preying – that’s P-R-E-Y – on the young people.”

But Trebek, who apparently does not attend mass regularly, was also sharply critical. “I was born and raised in the Catholic Church and I’m just as ticked off as everybody else is over what has happened with the church.” Asked elsewhere what he would ask the Pope as a talk-show guest, he answered, “Why aren’t you making more changes in the Catholic Church?” He then spoke in favor of women priests and married priests. In sum, he appears to nurture high interest and low commitment toward the Catholic Church.

Trebek also has maintained some evangelical connections. Beginning in the 1980s, he volunteered for the humanitarian aid organization World Vision. According to one publicity video, Trebek has quietly appeared in more than 40 television shows and traveled over one million miles on behalf of World Vision. He has not been outspoken about any evangelical leanings, but he has clearly been comfortable with the association. Some conservative evangelicals though, wanting to claim him, have contended that media moguls at CBS and NBC have edited out or ignored comments Trebek has made about prayers helping his recovery. If these conservative media watchdogs are right, perhaps he is more evangelical than we know.

But they probably aren’t right, given Trebek’s other significant religious association. Jean Trebek, his wife, is an active member of the North Hollywood Church of Religious Science, a church born out of the New Thought movement of the 1920s. According to one description, Religious Science teaches that the “individual human mind is an expression of the Universal Mind, and the universe is its material manifestation. Man and nature are, therefore, like the God who is their true being, considered to be fundamentally good, and apparent evil stems from ignorance of the highest identity.” Trebek himself does not appear to be all in on this heterodox tradition, but he does participate on the periphery. Church friends, he has said, are at the center of his social life, and Jean Trebek is president of the board of trustees at the church and is deeply involved in worship activities. On January 11, 2017, for example, she helped lead a Wednesday Evening Taize Service, starting it with a “singing bowl meditation.”

Trebek and Geoffrey Mitelman on the set of Jeopardy

Jeopardy! fans also inhabit many religious spaces, a reality that became apparent when Trebek announced his illness. Former 2016 contestant Geoffrey Mitelman, a Reform Jewish rabbi from New York, said, “Alex said he wanted prayers, so let’s see what we can do.” According to a Religious News Service story, the rabbi organized a digital interfaith prayer service on Trebek’s behalf that took place on March 13. Including more than 100 faith leaders who were Orthodox Jews, Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians and Episcopalians, the service included a prayer from the United Methodist Book of Worship. Mitelman explained, “My prayer is one that I’ve used a lot, and that is, to have strength for today and hope for tomorrow because it’s going to be a very difficult road for him. He needs to be able to find the strength he needs physically, the strength he needs emotionally and the strength he needs spiritually,” he said. “And, to know how many thousands of contestants love him, and viewers love him.” Afterward, Mitelman sent Trebek a Zoom recording of the service.

Trebek returned the love, crediting his fans for his recovery. “I’ve got a couple million people out there who have expressed their good thoughts, their positive energy directed towards me and their prayers,” he said. “I told the doctors, this has to be more than just the chemo, and they agreed it could very well be an important part of this.”

So what’s the answer to the question I posed at the beginning of this post? Is Trebek’s religious language just a public relations gambit? I don’t think so. Trebek seems too fascinated by religion. He clearly cares about the future of Catholicism, even though he doesn’t seem to be a terribly faithful Catholic himself. There’s no mistaking Trebek for being Mormon, but he and former contestant Ken Jennings fluently discussed topics ranging from tithing and Mormon dietary taboos on-air. He invested heavily in World Vision, though he never publicized these philanthropic activities. Perhaps he is just a complicated person who can’t be easily defined. Perhaps as Jennings said of Trebek, he is just “a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a Perry Ellis suit.”

There is another possibility that coheres all these disparate associations. Trebek’s spiritual biography may suggest that he is a practitioner of some combination of SBNA (“spiritual but not affiliated”) and MTD (“moralistic therapeutic deism”). A term introduced by Christian Smith in his book Soul Searching, MTD proposes the following theological features:

A God exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.
God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
Good people go to heaven when they die.

These newer religious streams might make sense of his many religious participations, his refusal to be defined by a single religious tradition, and his eagerness to dabble, potluck-style, in many practices of piety. Critics say that SBNA and MTD result in an insipid, shallow piety that emerges only when something is needed from the divine. But as they emerge as more dominant American religious sensibilities, critics must also acknowledge a kind of coherence as they transform from heterodoxy into their own orthodoxy.

But this may not be the end of Trebek’s faith journey. Brushes with death sometimes have a clarifying effect on religious belief and practice. In his cancer announcement, he joked with characteristic urbanity and control, “I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease,” he said. “Truth told, I have to. Because under the terms of my contract, I have to host Jeopardy for three more years.” Trebek, however, has also confessed to profound weakness and vulnerability. Cutting through the Hollywood veneer, he describes “sudden surges of deep, deep sadness.” In this last phase of life, it is possible that MTD is not ultimately satisfying, that Trebek’s faith takes yet another turn in a winding journey that is revealed to the rest of us only at his funeral.

David Swartz

Spiritual but not religious

Alex Trebek

MTD

Prayer

Spiritual but not religious

Previous Post

September 10, 2019

The Sky Pilots of the North Woods

Next Post

September 12, 2019 Anointed with Oil

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe Guest Post guest post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Simon Peter Judas Iscariot John James