Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jason Segel, Lakeith Stanfield, Condola Rashad, Danny Glover, and Martin Sheen.
Directed by Josh Marston (Maria Full of Grace)
From This American Life.
Years ago, I became aware that there was a huge gap between the way evangelicals are portrayed on TV and in films and in the news, and the evangelicals I know in my personal life. Who are not like the smiling, intolerant hardasses I see in the media, but complicated, sensitive, funny people who take seriously Jesus’s admonition to love one another.
It seemed worthwhile to tell stories that try to portray a more complicated picture of this part of America. Which is, after all, huge. A fourth of the country.
The story from the original broadcast (repeated here in the podcast) is fascinating whether you’re religious or not. Boiled down to its essence is this: Reverend Carlton Pearson became one of the most important figures in evangelical Christianity, then was shunned and eventually declared a heretic in 2004. Yes, a real honest-to-gosh heretic! Because he eventually came to believe that parts of the Bible were wrong and that Hell wasn’t real.