While virtue is scarce in either politics or reality television, it has occurred to me recently that our entire nation would probably benefit greatly if we simply forced all the presidential candidates to appear on the new game show, “The Moment of Truth.”
If you haven’t seen it, “The Moment of Truth” requires contestants to truthfully answer all kinds of increasingly personal questions to win big bucks. If they tell one lie, they lose everything.
Contestants are hooked up to lie detectors prior to the show and privately asked 50 personal questions. Each contestant is then brought up on stage, in front of family, friends, millions of viewers, and God, to answer some of those same questions and the lie detector results are used to determine if they are telling the truth. If contestants make it through 21 questions without lying, they win $500,000.
How hard can that be?
Real hard, apparently. Seems folks have a VERY difficult time telling the truth, or living life so that they have nothing to hide. The show is a fascinating, albeit disturbing, glimpse into the darker side of human nature.
The only episode I’ve seen so far included a contestant who worked as a waiter in a restaurant and admitted, among other things, that he stole tips from other waiters, changed credit card receipts to increase his tips, drove while drunk, and thought his girlfriend was boring.
He ended up lying about something related to his side job as an underwear model and not only lost all the money he’d won on the show, but probably also trashed his career, his reputation and his relationship with his girlfriend.
While there is something satisfying about watching people finally come clean, it’s disturbing that on this show, greed is the sole motivation for honesty.
Conversely, in real life, some form of greed is usually the motivation for our DIShonesty. The lies we tell and live are typically fueled by our desire for money, acceptance, or power.
So, how about it Hilary, Barack, Mike, John, Ron and whoever else is still in this presidential race? How about stopping by “The Moment of Truth” for an hour? Would any of you make it to the $500,000 prize? And if you did, what would we learn about you along the way?
Sounds like a plan to me. Might spare our nation hours of obnoxious T.V. ads we can’t believe, promises we can’t trust, and months of propaganda that erodes almost every shred of respect for anyone aspiring to be president.
So, how about me? You? How would we fare on this show? Or more to the point – how WILL we fare on this show, because there will be “The Moment of Truth” for all of us – a day when our lies will be exposed.
For those who have accepted the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ and yielded their hearts to Him, the Bible says that “moment of truth” will be covered by God’s grace and mercy. But those who reject Him will lose everything … forever.
God certainly desires for us to live honest lives we’re not ashamed of. But let’s face it — we all have sins we long to have forgiven, not exposed. That’s why Jesus came…and why I embrace Him so.
“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of GRACE and TRUTH.” (John 1:14)