What's missing from the family compound in HBO's new series "The Righteous Gemstones," which just enjoyed the finale of its well-reviewed and quite popular first season, is anything representing the values of a first-century itinerant preacher known as Jesus of Nazareth. My distrust of the theology represented in "The Righteous Gemstones" isn't an indictment of the HBO show, which has become one of my favorites on television. As a progressive Christian, I'm both laughing and crying while I watch "The Righteous Gemstones." The hypocrisy on display makes for good punchlines, but it also offers uncomfortable truths about the lamentable state of the more prominent avatars of evangelical Christianity in America today. We laugh at "The Righteous Gemstones" because it's absurd -- just like the state of evangelical Christianity in America.

Source: CNN October 17, 2019 11:48 UTC