Heather Fieten, also from First CRC, said, “I would have preferred it if the writers had chosen another faith group to ‘pick on.’ The idea that if the professor was a member of the CRC then she must be a Republican and anti-gay is somewhat annoying.”

Viewers of CRC persuasion were highly surprised when a character in Sunday’s episode of “The Good Wife” identified herself as a member of the Christian Reformed Church in North America.

Rev. Pieter Pereboom, pastor of First CRC in London, Ontario, said his reaction was, “Wow! I am not used to anyone other than Paul Schrader recognizing the CRC in the mass media.”

LuAnn Westerhuis, 56, from Fleetwood CRC in Surrey, British Columbia, was another surprised viewer. “I immediately looked up the writers of the show expecting to find a disgruntled Calvin College alumnus, but that was not the case,” she said.

“The Good Wife” is one of the most popular dramas on network television today, broadcast on CBS in the U.S. and on Global in Canada. (The episode can be viewed on the web until December 11.)

In the episode called “Parenting Made Easy,” the CRC character was fired from her job as a professor because of her religious views about homosexuality. Her views were aligned with the fact that she is Republican. She was being defended by the show’s main character, lawyer Alicia Florrick (played by Juliana Margulies).

In fact, it was a college connection that led to the CRC being mentioned in the show, but it wasn’t Calvin.

The show’s executive producer and co-creator, Robert King, attended Westmont College, a Christian liberal arts school in Santa Barbara, Calif., many years ago. He told The Banner that it was there that he encountered some students who belonged to the CRC. He did not know them well. King wrote the episode in question.

“We try to do television differently,” he said, “taking issues normally ridiculed or patronizing and take them seriously.”

He noted that many portrayals of religion are lumped into Baptist, Roman Catholic, or Jewish. He wanted this character’s denominational affiliation to be more specific. “It felt like the CRC fit our interests,” he said. He said they realize that the range of views on homosexuality don’t necessarily match what’s on paper in terms of a church’s official stance.

“We wanted the character to be a little more hard line working in an environment that was hostile,” he said. “I liked that she had a strong argument for her beliefs, and I liked her view that Jesus tempered the need for punishment, hard line but not without compassion.”

The show has matters of faith in several of its story lines, most noticeably the daughter of Alicia, Grace, played by Makenzie Vega. In this episode, Grace sneaks off without her parents’ knowledge to be baptized in a United Church in a strangely private ceremony.

Grace has been exploring Christianity, an activity that flummoxes her mother. “We wanted to play off liberal parents whose children rebel in unexpected ways,” said King. “Alicia is so open-minded and liberal and her child becomes more religious.”

The show also has openly gay and bisexual characters.

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