I almost used this last Sunday night as part of the intro to Acts 4:32-5:11 (Ananias & Sapphira), because this reeks of hypocrisy and deceptive behaviour.
But I didn’t. However this is still worth us thinking through…

The latest game show about to hit Australian TV screens is “Moment of Truth” If you’ve missed the promos, or some of the background, here’s a summary of the format as used in the American version:
Contestants undergo a pre-show interview strapped to a polygraph (a lie detector) and are then asked questions about every deep and dirty secret in their life.
On the air, the contestant sits before a couch filled with their immediate family and loved ones, along with an audience that in the States, numbers close to 9 million, and are then asked about these issues covered in the pre-show interview. If they answer truthfully (ie: if their answers match what the polygraph recorded), they are rewarded with money. Lots of it. They have the chance to make $200,000.
If their answers are false—based on the pre-interview polygraph results—they get the boot with nothing.

As will all the current crop of game/reality shows, the set up is designed to create tension and drama. But what it is really doing is putting people’s lives and relationships up against the chance at big money.

Have a look at this clip from a recent show (this is close to ten minutes long) and know that just prior to where this picks up the show, this women (Lauren) has already confessed to stealing money from work and avoiding sex with her husband, and a bunch of other not so good things in her life:

What does this say about:

• The contestants – the state of their lives and their apparent willingness to confess to all sorts of things on national TV (and be assured, the producers are only going to choose the ‘juicy’ ones to actually play the ‘game’)?
• Us as a community, who will watch this. My guess is it will rate it’s head off when the local version hits our screens.

One commentator in America has asked:

“Are people going on national TV and telling the world their darkest secrets because they are part of this nation’s growing number of religiously unaffiliated? Is this the same impulse that sends people up to the altar to blurt out their confession and be born-again? Does the polygraph and a game show host and millions of people leave the contestant awash in a feeling of acceptance and rejuvenation? Is this kind of truth that Lauren Cleri gave up the kind that sets you free?”

What do you think? Post your response below…