Last night’s “Veronica Mars,” somewhat oddly titled “There’s Got To Be A Morning After Pill,” portrayed a family of evangelical Christians in a surprisingly sympathetic light. (I say surprising only because evangelicals are not usually portrayed this way on TV, especially given the topic of last night’s episode.)

Classmate Bonnie hired Veronica’s P.I. services to track down who slipped her the morning-after pill–an utterly horrible act–since Bonnie had intended to keep the baby she was carrying. And here comes the surprisingly sympathetic part: Bonnie comes from a family of Christian fundamentalists, and her father happens to be a famous televangelist. You’d think they’d be livid, mortified, and utterly unforgiving, right? That they’d disown their daughter, right? (At least given TV and movie drama portrayals of such Christians.)

Well, last night’s episode shows Bonnie’s Dad–the televangelist himself–confessing to Veronica (after she goes to him undercover as a confused pregnant teen looking for advice) that she shouldn’t be afraid to tell her parents she was pregnant. That, in fact, his own daughter had just faced the same situation and that he and his wife couldn’t help but react with love for their daughter, and with excitement at the thought of their future grandchild. They sent her (Bonnie) balloons, congratulation cards, and the confidence that she had their unending support and love no matter what.

This from a TV Christian Dad–shocking!

But what got me most of all (and Veronica, too), was televangelist Dad’s counsel to his daughter when she found out who had slipped her the morning-after pill, causing the miscarriage. As his daughter screamed in anger and cried tears filled with rage, Dad put his arms around her and started quoting Scripture on anger–a litany of verses–about how anger only destroys us, that we must forgive those who do us injustice. On and on he went in a beautiful, loving speech, which in turn inspired Veronica to not enact a pretty terrible revenge she planned on rival Madison Sinclair.

It was quite powerful. And nice to see a show portray a Christian family against stereotype.