Eli Gemstone

Dr. Eli Gemstone is one of the main characters in the T.V. series, The Righteous Gemstones. He is the founding pastor of the megachurch, Gemstone Ministries, in Charleston, South Carolina.

Background
Originally starting as a televangelist with a TV show akin to Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker of PTL fame, Dr. Gemstone eventually built a religious empire with their main sanctuary averaging 17,000 attendees during peak religious holidays such as Christmas and Easter.

Eli is also the patriarch of the larger Gemstone family, which includes his sons Jesse and Kelvin, alongside his daughter Judy (Leigh) Gemstone. His wife, Aimee-Leigh Gemstone (Née Freeman), was his partner on the Gemstone television show, as well as an accomplished child singer and clog dancer. Aimee-Leigh would pass away in 2018, leaving the job of keeping of the church network and the family together to Eli.

Eli and his family currently live together in a gated community adjacent to their church's amusement park. This bears great similarity to a nearby venture, where Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker created a gated community with an amusement park in Fort Mill, SC that once numbered third in visitors behind Disneyland in Anaheim, CA and Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, FL. Each of Eli's three children live in the compound, with separate mansions housing each of the Gemstone offspring.

Eli's ministry at Gemstones Ministries is primarily based in expanding beyond his current church network. The opening episode introduced him participating in a mass baptism in China, and the first season primarily deals with Eli's expansion into the Locust Grove community, to the chagrin of the already-established Christian churches, namely the First Baptist Church headed by Reverend John Wesley Seasons.

Season 1
Starting in the first episode, Eli opens a new church location in Locust Grove. Based in an old Sears location at a mall, Eli taps his estranged brother-in-law, Baby Billy Freeman, to become the pastor for this new location. As the new church gains traction, this attracts the scrutiny of John Wesley Seasons, who believes the Gemstones' new church will siphon away members from his and other local churches.

Both Baby Billy and Seasons cause major headaches for Eli in his new endeavor. Baby Billy still harbors grudges against Eli for stealing his sister away from their musical duo, along with spiking a 1989 reunion tour when Baby Billy and Aimee-Leigh are in their 40s. Eli decided to do because Aimee-Leigh was pregnant with Kelvin at the time, and because Baby Billy lied to Aimee-Leigh about selling portions of their ancestral property, Freeman's Gap, located at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains in Upstate South Carolina.

While Eli deals with his expansion and the fallout that follows, his children engage in a blackmail scheme being perpetrated against his oldest, Jesse Gemstone. This scheme involves a recorded video of Jesse and his friends participating in drug abuse, alcohol consumption, and parts of the group soliciting prostitutes (excluding Jesse, who noticeably does not engage in sexual activity in the video). The extortionists targeting Jesse eventually agree to meet up for money in exchange for the hard drive containing the video, but Jesse proceeds to run over and seriously maim two of three extortionists. Jesse enlists his siblings Kelvin and Judy in this endeavor, which they also find was recorded by a local auto parts store adjacent to the parking lot where they ran over the extortionists.

It is later revealed that the extortionists are colleagues of Jesse's estranged son Gideon, whom had been working in California as a stunt man. The three involved were actually Gideon, his friend and fellow stuntman Scotty, and Scotty's girlfriend Lucy. Scotty and Lucy were seriously injured by Jesse running them over with his SUV. Scotty ended up coming to before making it to the hospital, and the two of Scotty and Gideon decided to dump Lucy's unconscious body down a ditch.

Scotty and Lucy would later recover from their injuries and escape the hospital in favor of a dive motel in the area. Gideon and Scotty then planned to infiltrate Gemstone Ministries as a way to pull off a massive heist in collection plate cash on Easter Sunday. Gideon used a ruse of reconnecting with his family as a means to an end of learning the church's financial practices, culminating in his training under the tutelage of church executive, Martin Amari.

While the heist and blackmail schemes were occurring, Eli also dealt with tension between him and his brother-in-law, Baby Billy. While Baby Billy had been tapped for the Locust Grove location, Billy did not accept immediately believing his feud with Eli to be still active. Baby Billy had been planning on quitting the location shortly after starting, however a break-in at the Locust Grove location occurred and nearly cost Baby Billy and Tiffany their lives. However, Eli had been planning for some time to apologize and reach a catharsis with Baby Billy, and arrived at the Church location exactly as the burglars discovered Baby Billy and Tiffany. Eli then ordered the burglars at gunpoint to strip down naked, and then run through the mall out the church exit. This would prove fruitful for Eli, as he and Baby Billy would come to a temporary truce.

However, this truce would be short lived due to Eli's treatment of his daughter, Judy. Judy had always resented being assigned to low-level jobs or tasks for the Church, having perceived the ultimate snub for not being chosen for anything substantial on Easter Sunday. Believing herself to carry her mother's talented genes for singing and dancing, Judy reached out to Baby Billy about joining the Locust Grove location as a cantor and co-pastor. Judy would later perform a sing and dance cover of Baby Billy and Aimee-Leigh's hit song, Misbehavin' in front of Baby Billy, after which Baby Billy agreed to hire her on the spot. However, this would be one of many petty steps taken by Baby Billy and Eli, reigniting their old grudge. Eventually, Eli caved and agreed to let Judy have a part in the Easter service, however, Judy got cold feet and eventually returned to Locust Grove because she felt valued by Baby Billy. Eli would later show to Judy that Baby Billy is only concerned with himself, leading to Judy's split with Baby Billy and Baby Billy abandoning his post as the Locust Grove location's head pastor.

Although he and Gideon had a major fistfight and disagreement, Scotty was later introduced to the family and invited to live at Jesse's house alongside Gideon, the two then use a guise for stealing the upwards of $3 million from Gemstones ministries that is collected on Easter Sunday. However, Gideon later had a change of heart and wanted to back out of the heist. He tried to inform his father Jesse, however Jesse interpreted Gideon's change of heart to be Gideon's coming out to his father.

Instead, Scotty would catch up with him that night and force Eli to open the church's vault and then force both Gideon and Jesse to fill bags with the cash collections for Scotty to then abscond with Lucy to Thailand. Scotty would then disappear with his red utility van and $3 million in cash, driving away like a maniac after his heist.

Following the heist, Gideon explained the heist scheme to Eli, leaving out that it was part of a blackmail attempt on his own father. Jesse's wife, Amber Gemstone banished Gideon from the family for his role in the heist. However, upon trying to locate the missing cash (which had then been stolen by Baby Billy and his wife Tiffany after they were hit broadside by Scotty while the two were engaging in fellatio), Judy and Kelvin would eventually come clean to Eli about the entire ordeal. Eli then fires his three children from their positions in his church, realizing that the three engaged more in petty squabbling or in crazy schemes, as opposed to living like the true Christians he wanted them to live.