On many levels, HBO’s new show “Big Love” could be seen simply as an above-average family drama. There’s a hint of criminal conspiracy to keep things interesting, but at its core the show is essentially about family values. But this isn’t television – it’s HBO. Which means this family isn’t an ordinary one. It has one husband and three wives – they’re polygamists from Utah.

The show, which has its premiere Sunday night at 10 p.m., has a terrific cast of journeyman actors, great writing, and high production values. Bill Henrickson is the owner of a small chain of home-improvement stores in Salt Lake City. Trying to manage all three of his wives and a platoon of children while hiding his polygamy from the neighbors, Bill also tries to keep the leader of the former polygamist sect from blackmailing him and ruining his business.The show is full of drama, betrayal, and intrigue. It’s good, absorbing television with just one fatal flaw: It’s not recognizably Mormon.

Mormonism is the largest religious denomination native to America, yet Mormons are frequently ignored or misunderstood. The church’s unorthodox beliefs and historical transformation from an exotic sect to an all-American religious franchise says a lot about the dynamics of faith in American life. But in “Big Love,” the portrayal of the religion (both the established church and the excommunicated polygamist sects) feels like a jumbled mess of details a half-dozen television writers gleaned from Internet research.

Though I haven’t set foot in a Mormon “stake center” in years, I was raised in the church and was a sixth-generation Mormon on my mother’s side. Like it or not, I can’t escape the powerful cultural imprint the church left on my family and me.

The producers of “Big Love” pepper the dialogue with Mormon lingo, such as the church’s belief in “free agency,” the afterlife in the “celestial kingdom,” and its youth slogan “CTR” (Choose the Right). But as a matter of custom, Mormons almost never hold hands when they pray, as they do in the show. And while they would certainly pray for a safe outing in the woods, I imagine few Mormons would do anything as absurd as ask God to bless a new hunting rifle, as happens in one memorable scene. And to the extent that Mormons believe in personal revelation from the Holy Ghost, it’s a far more private and complex issue than the dramatic visions given to the family patriarch, ably played by Bill Paxton, who thinks nothing of casually discussing them with his best friend. To the writers on the show, the church’s belief in personal prophecy is just a convenient opportunity to ape the dream sequences from “The Sopranos.”

Meanwhile, back in fly-over country, distinctions in belief matter. But most of the entertainment industry – which is overwhelmingly nonreligious or anti-religion – can’t create believable religious characters. And until Hollywood tries to understand the religions it portrays so cavalierly, it is going to miss out on a large part of its audience.

Every once in a while, a religious film or television show slips through the cracks. A film that has quality actors and production – such as “The Chronicles of Narnia” or “The Passion” – and doesn’t mock or patronize religion is almost a guaranteed success.But you’d never know it from most of the press coverage. Despite the fact that “Narnia” has made six times as much money at the box office, “Brokeback Mountain”got the big Oscar nominations and enough publicity to make you believe it was a shared cultural event on par with the moon landing.

Hollywood’s obdurate unwillingness to engage actual religious beliefs is all the more frustrating when you consider that though Hollywood doesn’t get Mormons, Mormons have no trouble beating Hollywood at its own game. One of the biggest recent film success stories is “Napoleon Dynamite.” The independent film made $44 million in limited release, on a production budget of $400,000. DVD sales have been stellar, and “Napoleon Dynamite” is on its way to becoming the biggest cult film since “Office Space” – almost anyone under 30 can do their own impersonation of the geeky title character.

The comedic subject matter of the movie isn’t explicitly religious, but “Napoleon Dynamite” was made by Mormon filmmakers with a largely Mormon cast and crew. Coming from a family of Idaho Mormons, I was deeply struck by the good-natured humor and the honest portrayal of the largely Mormon community of Preston, Idaho. Audiences everywhere responded as well.

In fact, there’s a burgeoning and surprisingly successful Mormon film industry, known as “Mollywood” (after the phrase “Molly Mormons,” a quasi-derogatory term for Mormons overly concerned with appearing righteous). Mollywood is increasingly attracting the attention of mainstream Hollywood talent, and chances are it will send out another big hit like “Napoleon Dynamite” before long.

Regrettably, Hollywood doesn’t have an honest interest in telling real stories about the country’s 8 million Mormons. The “writing and domestic partners” responsible for “Big Love,” Mark Olsen and Will Scheffer, have drawn strong parallels between the struggles for gay marriage and polygamy rights. In one episode, the leader of the polygamist sect on the show, the corrupt and charismatic Prophet Roman, even suggests using the same legal justification for gay marriage to defend polygamy. “We thought that made such interesting, strange, and perverse bedfellows that it was just too delicious not to use,” Mr. Olsen told a gathering of critics recently.There’s an agenda at work here, and one that will turn off most people of faith.

Mormons have survived nearly two centuries of immeasurable hardships, including a grueling migration west, carving a new civilization out of the desert and actually fighting federal armies to preserve their beliefs and way of life.Yet “Big Love” reduces an important American faith to “Father Knows Best,” only with subversive sexual politics and an apocalyptic eschatology.

That unlikely combination of elements might make for good television. It’s just unfortunate that a show called “Big Love” is made in such bad faith.