By resisting the urge to make any larger judgments about religion as a societal force, Come Sunday, a new Netflix biopic about the real-life Bishop Carlton Pearson from Maria Full of Grace director Joshua Marston, manages to get into those messier struggles of the balance of faith and religion. The result is a quietly contemplative character piece, grounded by a characteristically terrific performance from Chiwetel Ejiofor in the central role. At times the film may meander, but it never once loses momentum. At its core, Come Sunday is an interpersonal drama, one that is intensely interested in the many relationships that make up Bishop Pearson’s life. Condola Rashad plays Gina Pearson, Carlton’s wife who struggles with her own duty to the church. Jason Segal, Stacey Sargeant, and Lakeith Stanfield all play core members of Carlton’s church team who react in different ways to their bishop’s radical revelations. Stanfield in particular stands out as Reggie, a closeted gay man whose church tells him that to love men is to go to Hell. While Ejiofor’s Pearson is the planet around which all other characters orbit, the film does an impressive job articulating its supporting cast of characters. Even when Martin Sheen’s Dr. Oral Roberts is denouncing his dead gay son, the film gives him context and texture that allows the viewer to empathize with the character. There are no mustache-twirling villains here; only deeply religious men and women trying to honor their relationship to God and religion as they best know how. The viewer is given the space to judge which characters’ interpretations harm or hinder, if they should so choose, but Come Sunday is not interested in placing characters into a hierarchy of blessedness or morality.