Scripture Chase

Way back in my high school years, I attended a daily church study group, commonly known as “seminary” (or, more accurately, “release-time seminary”) per my religion's nomenclature. In this class, we would periodically engage in scriptural games. One of Brother Moses’ (the instructor, and yes, that is his name) favorites was a game called “scripture chase”.

In “scripture chase”, no scriptures actually move: the students do. The class is divided into groups (e.g. 4 or 5 groups with about 4 people in each group). The groups separate to the far corners of the room where group members can collaborate and try to use the old divide-and-conquer algorithm to find scriptures. The instructor would give a small topic, or question, and then the groups quickly find the relevant scripture, at which point one person runs to the front of the room, grabs hold of the token at the podium, and then states the book and verse of the scripture and reads said scripture as the answer.

The reward for answering correctly is sometimes a treat, bragging rights, extra credit, or some other semi-meaningful reward. Brother Moses would typically narrow the scope to a few books, chapters, or pages so that we are not searching the entirety of the scriptures. In addition, the questions usually reinforced whatever topic or lesson we were studying that week.

The “token” at the front of the room is the equivalent of the buzzer in the game show “Jeopardy”, and allows only one group to answer at a time, even when two groups simultaneously get to the front of the room.

One time during a scripture chase, the instructor gave a clue that resulted in the scripture D&C 14:10 as the answer. Zealous as I am, I quickly ran up to the podium, grabbed the token, and read that scripture out loud:

“Wherefore, I must bring forth the fulness of my gospel from the Genitals unto the house of Israel.”

I was absolutely straight-faced and serious. The whole class paused. Brother Moses turned a bright red…and as I reviewed in my head what I had said, I realized my mistake, immediately turned red, and the entire room burst into laughter.