The Righteous Gemstones' timelessness is one of its weak points in 2019

Salon.com

"Erase the show’s references to streaming services and smartphones, and this family could easily be a stand-in for Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, a husband-and-wife televangelism duo whose show, the PTL Club (short for 'Praise the Lord') became embroiled in financial and sexual scandals in the 1980s," says Ashlie D. Stevens. But that kind of portrayal is different in the era of Trump. "While some of the mechanics may be the same — illicit sex, hidden funds, sin behind closed doors — religious hypocrisy in 2019 looks very different than it did for the televangelists of 1989," says Stevens. "It’s more public and political; a reality that is also illustrated by the recent #ChurchToo sexual abuse scandals, the news of former megachurch pastor and Christian author Joshua Harris leaving the church and apologizing for his hurtful teachings, and the newly-released Netflix documentary series The Family, which attempts to shine light upon and untangle the points in contemporary American politics where church and state became synonymous."