Bishop Carlton Pearson, a renowned preacher, singer and composer, known for his Live At Azusa albums, died on November 19 after a battle with cancer in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
His theology, known as the “gospel of inclusion,” preached against homophobia and embraced the LGBTQ community, but cost him his congregation and approval within the evangelical community. However, his message of inclusion and his denial of hell has become a model, and his impact in gospel music continues to inspire new generations of artists.
“He has an album of hymns that people would...
His theology, known as the “gospel of inclusion,” preached against homophobia and embraced the LGBTQ community, but cost him his congregation and approval within the evangelical community. However, his message of inclusion and his denial of hell has become a model, and his impact in gospel music continues to inspire new generations of artists.
“He has an album of hymns that people would...
- 11/23/2023
- by Meagan Jordan
- Rollingstone.com
The actor’s first film behind the camera is a stirring adaptation of a William Kamkwamba memoir telling an astonishing story of triumph in Malawi
Last year, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Netflix headed to Sundance with Come Sunday, a dramatisation of the life of “heretic” pastor Carlton Pearson that, despite the provocative source material, fizzled out before making a soft landing online months later. Actor and platform have reassembled for a second attempt to woo Utah crowds with a BFI-backed project close to the Oscar nominee’s heart – so close, in fact, that the 12 Years a Slave star picked it as his directorial debut.
Related: Hollywood A-listers and controversial documentaries head to Sundance...
Last year, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Netflix headed to Sundance with Come Sunday, a dramatisation of the life of “heretic” pastor Carlton Pearson that, despite the provocative source material, fizzled out before making a soft landing online months later. Actor and platform have reassembled for a second attempt to woo Utah crowds with a BFI-backed project close to the Oscar nominee’s heart – so close, in fact, that the 12 Years a Slave star picked it as his directorial debut.
Related: Hollywood A-listers and controversial documentaries head to Sundance...
- 1/26/2019
- by Benjamin Lee
- The Guardian - Film News
Following a Sundance Film Festival debut in January, Netflix unveiled Come Sunday, its true-life religious story of the Rev. Carlton Pearson, over the weekend on its streaming service and in some theaters. I caught it Sunday (naturally), but the low-energy dramatics didn’t grab me, with the exception of the lead performance from the always reliable Chiwetel Ejiofor as Pearson, a media-age preacher caught up in a crisis of conscience.
Based on This American Life’s segment entitled “Heretics” that focused on Pearson and the controversial decision to tell his flock that Hell doesn’t exist, director Joshua Marston (who made an impressive first film in 2004 with Maria Full of Grace but has largely worked in television since) and screenwriter Marcus Hinchey struggle to give the compelling true story of Pearson some much-needed dramatic mojo. A little more life should have been poured into the biopic which, appropriately for Netflix if not Sundance,...
Based on This American Life’s segment entitled “Heretics” that focused on Pearson and the controversial decision to tell his flock that Hell doesn’t exist, director Joshua Marston (who made an impressive first film in 2004 with Maria Full of Grace but has largely worked in television since) and screenwriter Marcus Hinchey struggle to give the compelling true story of Pearson some much-needed dramatic mojo. A little more life should have been poured into the biopic which, appropriately for Netflix if not Sundance,...
- 4/17/2018
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
Matthew 4:16: “The people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” That Bible passage was written about Jesus Christ’s return from Galilee after the arrest of John the Baptist, but it could just as easily have preordained the glory of Jesus Christ’s return to movie screens after the pre-Easter rash of faith-based faff like “I Can Only Imagine” and “God’s Not Dead: Light in Darkness.”
Now that the lord hath risen, the quality of movies about him is set to rise as well. While Paul Schrader’s transcendent “First Reformed” is still waiting in the wings, “Maria Full of Grace” director Joshua Marston’s safe but stirring “Come Sunday” is a big step back towards grace, and a necessary reminder that spiritual crises are always more engaging for the questions...
Now that the lord hath risen, the quality of movies about him is set to rise as well. While Paul Schrader’s transcendent “First Reformed” is still waiting in the wings, “Maria Full of Grace” director Joshua Marston’s safe but stirring “Come Sunday” is a big step back towards grace, and a necessary reminder that spiritual crises are always more engaging for the questions...
- 4/12/2018
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
The story of Carlton Pearson, a man of the church who was labelled a heretic, is told in Netflix’s provocative new drama. Its director and real-life subject discuss its relevance
The words don’t come naturally out of his mouth, which is surprising because – for the bishop – that’s all words usually do.
“I’m an atheist who is a theist,” he chuckles. “I still believe in God but not ‘a’ God or ‘the’ God. Just God.
The words don’t come naturally out of his mouth, which is surprising because – for the bishop – that’s all words usually do.
“I’m an atheist who is a theist,” he chuckles. “I still believe in God but not ‘a’ God or ‘the’ God. Just God.
- 4/12/2018
- by Jamiles Lartey
- The Guardian - Film News
After premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January this year, a trailer has been revealed by Netflix for the biopic, Come Sunday. Telling the story of a pastor who questioned the existence of hell, Carlton Pearson played by Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Inspired by This American Life, a radio program hosted by Ira Glass. The 2005 episode “Heretics” examines Pearson’s work as an evangelical pastor in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and how he “cast aside the idea of hell.
Also in trailers – Drac is in the mood for love in new trailer for Hotel Transylvania 3
Directed by Joshua Marston (Complete Unknown, Maria Full of Grace), the film stars Ejiofor alongside Martin Sheen, rising star Lakeith Stanfield (Get Out, Atlanta), and stage actress Condola Rashād, the daughter of former NFL star Ahmad Rashad.
Related: Chiwetel Ejiofor and Tahar Rahim on playing Jesus Christ’s apostles Peter and Judas in Mary Magdalene
The feature is...
Inspired by This American Life, a radio program hosted by Ira Glass. The 2005 episode “Heretics” examines Pearson’s work as an evangelical pastor in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and how he “cast aside the idea of hell.
Also in trailers – Drac is in the mood for love in new trailer for Hotel Transylvania 3
Directed by Joshua Marston (Complete Unknown, Maria Full of Grace), the film stars Ejiofor alongside Martin Sheen, rising star Lakeith Stanfield (Get Out, Atlanta), and stage actress Condola Rashād, the daughter of former NFL star Ahmad Rashad.
Related: Chiwetel Ejiofor and Tahar Rahim on playing Jesus Christ’s apostles Peter and Judas in Mary Magdalene
The feature is...
- 3/22/2018
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The upcoming Netflix film Come Sunday will begin streaming on April 13, 2018 and we are pleased to share the trailer for your viewing pleasure. The film follows internationally-renowned pastor Carlton Pearson — experiencing a crisis of faith — who risks his church, family and future when he questions church doctrine and finds himself branded a modern-day heretic. Even though Come Sunday is based on actual events, the film premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival to mixed critical reception.
Come Sunday is directed by Joshua Marston and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Martin Sheen, Jason Segel, Condola Rashad, Lakeith Stanfield and Danny Glover. The film was written by Marcus Hinchey and produced by Ira Glass, Julie Goldstein, Alissa Shipp and James D. Stern. Here’s the trailer, along with the official synopsis and some images for the film below:
From director Joshua Marston, Come Sunday stars Academy Award-nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lakeith Stanfield, Jason Segel,...
Come Sunday is directed by Joshua Marston and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Martin Sheen, Jason Segel, Condola Rashad, Lakeith Stanfield and Danny Glover. The film was written by Marcus Hinchey and produced by Ira Glass, Julie Goldstein, Alissa Shipp and James D. Stern. Here’s the trailer, along with the official synopsis and some images for the film below:
From director Joshua Marston, Come Sunday stars Academy Award-nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lakeith Stanfield, Jason Segel,...
- 3/22/2018
- by Kristyn Clarke
- Age of the Nerd
It’s rare that mainstream filmmakers attempt to take seriously matters of faith – a subject personal to a majority of people but which movies have historically handled clumsily. This perhaps exposes the gap in the competencies between the greats and the merely good, Ok, or less. It takes a true understanding of an art form to use it to express the ineffable, spiritual aspects of human experience. The ways of doing so do not exist in the conventional toolkit. Come Sunday makes an admirable effort to delve into religious conviction and changes in faith, but comes up feeling too normal and disconnected from those matters.
The film dramatizes the true story of Carlton Pearson (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a celebrated Church of God in Christ bishop who at the height of his power in the ‘90s preached to a congregation of over 6,000 and reached millions more through television broadcasts and revival tours.
The film dramatizes the true story of Carlton Pearson (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a celebrated Church of God in Christ bishop who at the height of his power in the ‘90s preached to a congregation of over 6,000 and reached millions more through television broadcasts and revival tours.
- 1/23/2018
- by Daniel Schindel
- The Film Stage
Ejiofor is superb in this biopic of ousted Pentecostalist minister Carlton Pearson, but his moral conversion doesn’t go nearly far enough
Chiwetel Ejiofor is electrifying from the pulpit in this biopic of Pentecostal bishop Carlton Pearson. It’s no wonder that Pearson’s ministry packed them in each week, television cameras in tow. When we first meet him he is a devout born-again Christian, and even if he’s exhausted on a late night flight he’ll save the soul of his seat passenger is she happens to be a lapsed Catholic at wits’ end and hungry for purpose.
Though strict in his beliefs and a protege of the renown huckster Oral Roberts (who once told his congregation that God would strike him dead if he couldn’t raise $8m to bail out a real estate deal) it is clear that Bishop Pearson is a good man. It’s...
Chiwetel Ejiofor is electrifying from the pulpit in this biopic of Pentecostal bishop Carlton Pearson. It’s no wonder that Pearson’s ministry packed them in each week, television cameras in tow. When we first meet him he is a devout born-again Christian, and even if he’s exhausted on a late night flight he’ll save the soul of his seat passenger is she happens to be a lapsed Catholic at wits’ end and hungry for purpose.
Though strict in his beliefs and a protege of the renown huckster Oral Roberts (who once told his congregation that God would strike him dead if he couldn’t raise $8m to bail out a real estate deal) it is clear that Bishop Pearson is a good man. It’s...
- 1/22/2018
- by Jordan Hoffman
- The Guardian - Film News
Fourteen years after wowing Sundance with his feature debut, Maria Full of Grace, director Joshua Marston returns with arguably his most powerful work since that harrowing drug and migration drama. Developed from a story broadcast on Ira Glass' long-running public radio show This American Life about the crisis of faith that shook renowned Pentecostal bishop Carlton Pearson in the late 1990s, Come Sunday is a mesmerizing contemplation of the clash between rigid dogma and considered reinterpretation. The fact that it comes down on the side of mind-opening inclusion makes it an especially timely discussion in the current national climate.
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- 1/22/2018
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Chiwetel Ejiofor stars in the true-life tale of a renowned pastor in the midst of a crisis of faith in Come Sunday, the new film from Sundance Film Festival alum Joshua Marston that is having its world premiere tonight at the Eccles in the fest’s Premieres section. The Netflix drama bows on the streaming service April 13. Based on the This American Life story “Heretics,” Ejiofor is Carlton Pearson, an evangelical star whose mentor is Oral Roberts (Martin Sheen) and who…...
- 1/21/2018
- Deadline
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