June 8, 2015 ISI Radio Show with Richard Romano discussing his autobiographical movie “The Investigator”

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Live from the historic parsonage of 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown

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Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron, a radio platform on which pastors,

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Christian scholars and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

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Proverbs 27 verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

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Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed whom we converse with and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

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It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.

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Now here's our host, Chris Arntzen. Good afternoon

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Cumberland County, Pennsylvania and the rest of humanity on the planet earth listening via live streaming.

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This is Chris Arntzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron, wishing you all a happy Monday on this 8th day of June 2015.

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I'm very excited to have as a guest for the first time on Iron Sharpens Iron, Richard Romano, who is the brother of world -renowned award -winning actor and comedian

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Ray Romano of Everybody Loves Raymond fame and today we're airing an episode of Everybody Loves Richard because this is all about Richard Romano and his career as a

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New York City police detective and more importantly about his conversion to Jesus Christ through a series of tragedies that occurred in his life both on the job as a

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New York City police sergeant and also at home and this is all chronicled, these events are chronicled in a movie that is now out on DVD called

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The Investigator and you can find out more about that movie at theinvestigatormovie .com

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that's theinvestigatormovie .com and you can also order that movie on DVD at cvbbs .com

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that's Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service cvbbs .com but it's my honor and privilege to have you on the air with us on Iron Sharpens Iron, Richard Romano.

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Good afternoon, thank you for having me on. And of course, Rich, I want to get just a few questions out of the way on Everybody Loves Raymond because I don't want them haunting and plaguing the minds of our listeners.

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I just want to move on from there but I know that you were based or the character

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I should say of Robert on Everybody Loves Raymond, the police officer, he was based very loosely on you because basically what

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Ray did was he combined two of his brothers, he gave the name of the character

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Robert and the career of you as a police officer for the character.

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If you could pick up on there and also let our listeners know how closely that family resembled your family in real life.

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Well, that's correct. He needed a sibling on there and he used my profession, my other brother

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Bobby's name and you know and then he, you know, it was a comedy so he had to stretch some of the stories.

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I mean most of the stories in the tales are made up obviously and I think the mother played by Doris Roberts was not like my mother at all, more like the head writer.

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I will say that the father played by Peter Boyle was similar to my father in some respects, you know, there were some similarities in there and Raymond's wife, well

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I'm sure Raymond had got nagged a little bit by his wife.

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But you know, obviously a comedy, not so much Patricia Heaton did it. I mean it was loosely based on it and he had a good time with it, we had a good time and you know, just like anything on TV or the movie, you know, there's some stretching of the truth and some literary exaggeration,

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I guess you could say, just to make it good for the screen, you know. It was a fun show and happy comedy and you know, we're all happy for him.

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Oh, I love that show. That was one of my all -time favorite shows in all of my history of viewing television and having had lunch with you and sitting right across the table from you,

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I know that you never once touched your chin before you ate something. Yeah, I think you got that because when we played baseball

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I had a good luck charm of touching the bottom of the bat to my chin.

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You know, baseball players have a lot of quirks, that's for sure. Well, let's pick up in the movie,

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The Investigator movie, I know that it very closely follows the actual events of your life but there were events that were altered or changed a bit, not only due to artistic license for dramatic purposes but also because of some things that you wanted to keep private and personal that you didn't want to share with the public.

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But you were a New York City police detective and sergeant and in the movie you were involved in overseeing a police sting, an undercover investigation involving a drug dealer, if you could pick it up from there.

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I mean, do you want me to do the spoiler alert? Yeah, I think that's what you got to do and obviously you give away as much as you want to give away for interview purposes.

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Even if we tell the audience a little bit of the plot, I mean it'll still be interesting to watch it, there's some things we won't give away.

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But in the movie it opens up with a New York City police sergeant involved in an undercover narcotic squad and just like I was and you know it's a shame the way the police departments are today getting ripped and torn apart by the public.

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I there's a lot of bad cops but a lot of bad people in every profession but I've never seen it this bad.

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But anyway, it was just a police officer and a sergeant.

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Well, I was the sergeant and in the movie an undercover bus went bad.

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The detective, the undercover detective, mistakenly thought that a person was dealing drugs and he pushed the issue too much and the person punched out this detective, the undercover detective, and then the backup team came in and then there was a struggle for a gun and tragically the unarmed person who was thought to be dealing drugs got killed.

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I mean that all was true, I mean it was a tragic incident but it was ruled an accident.

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A little bit, you know, unlike some of the ones going on today which were a little bit more to blame for the police.

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This one, somebody innocent died so it really doesn't matter whether um you know who was at fault, somebody truly died who didn't wasn't supposed to but the police were exonerated in that one and it was my undercover officer who um who actually um bought a gun instead of a gun.

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And for the movie, uh, actually except for dramatic purposes,

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I, I, uh, the gun was uh it had the same effect in that it was such a high -profile shooting and um you know it was it was a it was a lot of still public unrest that I had my 20 years on the job already and the they recommended because of the publicity that I rendered because who my brother was um they suggested that I had two choices that I could either uh retire and take my pension of 20 years which

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I took me or I continue um they didn't want to take a chance of me getting involved in any kind of um kind of police action that they want because I would have to work inside the rest of my career and and that's not what

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I could shop for so I kind of I kind of uh I'm 435 but I was feared that way okay police force

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I'm sorry what was the last thing you said rich so at that point I retired uh the police force with my pension intact and you know just in good graces but I did retire okay and if I could ask you to always keep the uh

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I know that you had to use a cell phone today so if you could always keep the the phone close to your your mouth because sometimes it seems like disappear there but this is just this is just one of the things that always goes on with audio issues with radio but um but you were uh from what the way that the movie describes you personally in regard to your spirituality you were basically just a nominal roman catholic or roman catholic by name only you didn't you seem to be agnostic that you really didn't know for certain whether or not god existed and this was just one of the profound initial steps there may have been others before this but this was really a profound uh monumental step this tragedy in the lord chipping away at your heart am

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I am I right on that yes I mean I grew up in a roman catholic household and I went to catholic grammar school catholic high school st john's university catholic university and I believe although my parents really didn't practice um

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I was a believer and that changed when I became a police officer

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I wasn't ready for the things I was going to see um

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I was physically ready but I I had no way of knowing how much of the dark saggy battlefield was going to see which

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I'm sure every police officer sees across the country and it really it really started uh making me question my faith and there were times when

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I had some deep deep valleys of losing my faith and I would

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I would try and bounce back but it took its toll for 20 years you know innocent people dying and the injustice and like I said dark side of humanity it truly made me wonder if anybody was up there and um it was a constant struggle and that that at the end there it you know it wasn't so much that it was um somebody that you know

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I was so much involved with but I wasn't involved in some things over the 20 years but it just was the finality of it and like the slope of the calves back and right after that very quickly after that uh my uh pregnant wife had a miscarriage and um those two things just put me to the depth of despair

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I I gave up that was it for me and uh one thing that I'd like to uh bring up because it's uh it's a very uh obviously inescapable fact from the news that there is a lot of anger especially in the minority community against the police and we have uh riots that have been going on in Ferguson Missouri and in and Berkeley California, New York City, Chicago, most recently

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Baltimore, Maryland uh where we we have also heard about the tragedies of police officers being assassinated and uh

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I wanted to get your take on this being in a unique situation of being both a born -again believer in Christ and also having been a or being a retired police officer from from an inner city where you worked and uh if you could also comment tying in with that there's a profound point in the movie uh where you told me that before the interview the

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Lord used this incident that actually happened in your life to drain the racism out of your heart and mind it just like it just sucked it right out of your your soul if you will if you could uh comment on that yeah you know um

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I believe that God's truth can be um told to us in many ways

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I I it's great to listen to a pastor or priest or some people a rabbi or whatever they may do

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God's truth is not does not have to be learned in a box

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I do believe that there are people out there I was one you know I would go to church and I would just sit there and and you know

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God bless the pastor or the priest but I would think to myself they have no idea of what the world is like and what

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I've seen and I can't connect to them I just can't and then I was kind of uh

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I felt so alone even when even when I was searching um for meaning for truth

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Christ I felt so alone because I felt I didn't connect with anybody and I came to learn that um you know

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God's truth if he wants to tell us something in this case if he wanted to tell me something it didn't have to be through a priest or a pastor or maybe a passage in the bible he he uh he revealed the truth to me um through things that incidents that happened and he gave me the wisdom and the ability to analyze them and to understand that this was

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God's truth playing out and and one of the times when I became a policeman um you know

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I was kind of like guys easy going and uh

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I got along with everybody and you know I I didn't even know about prejudice um you know that is that that's my vocabulary and when

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I became a police officer I you know after a while you you become desensitized and um your heart could become cold and but the sad part is it's prejudice for all people

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I started I started feeling like nobody understood me um you know

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I'm a Caucasian now and uh I I wasn't just prejudiced against African American or or um

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Spanish or Jewish I I I just didn't like I I just didn't like anybody

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I felt police and I had a lot of hatred in my heart and um you know

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I found I found myself slipping away and that was one of the reasons why I hit the the depth of that valley because I said look at my heart

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I I can't be a follower of Christ like this and you know I'm just like a mess and I'm just I hate everybody and it was horrible horrible and then it's it's a hard hard thing to overcome and and you know for me for me the way

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I did maybe for me because I was so naive going in like like I said

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I I just couldn't believe how my heart had turned this way um one one day um we responded to a um a job shots fired it was actually

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Christmas Eve I just made sergeant and um it was in the ghetto and we responded inside the apartment and we saw the aftermath of uh uh some kind of incident where a marijuana dealer this man was dealing out of his apartment in a sentiment apartment building and he laid there dead with a shot in the head um amidst uh amidst all the uh marijuana and the money apparently a drug deal had gone by and I gotta tell you that's nothing uh that's nothing out of the ordinary in New York City I mean back then there was like 3 ,000 homicides a year most of them were drug related but so we just took it as it was and we kept the body there for the crime scene as we vouched all the uh we collected all the drugs and the money and as we did that people we would hear footsteps on the stairs and one of the cops would make believe he was the dead man they would yell up uh yell a lot you up there and one of the cops would yell yeah come on up and they would come up into the apartment thinking that they were going to uh buy some drugs from there from this person who was dead and they would see him down are you there rich uh actually

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I guess we we just lost rich but we're going to go to a station break if you'd like to join us on the air with a question you can call you can call uh

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I'm sorry you can't call you can email us at chrisarnson at gmail .com

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that's chrisarnson at gmail .com you can ask a question for rich and god willing we'll be getting him back on the air right after these messages and first we're going to hear a message from one of our love sponsors here linbrook baptist church no this was not the church that the barone family attended on everybody loves raymond just coincidentally they uh lived in linbrook and i forgot to ask rich why they had linbrook as the setting of that program everybody loves raymond but don't go away we'll be right back after these messages linbrook baptist church on 225 earl avenue in linbrook long island is teaching god's timeless truths in the 21st century our church is far more than a sunday worship service it's a place of learning where the scriptures are studied and the preaching of the gospel is clear and relevant it's like a gym where one can exercise their faith through community involvement it's like a hospital for wounded souls where one can find compassionate people and healing we're a diverse family of all ages enthusiastically serving our lord jesus christ in fellowship play and together hi i'm pastor bob waldeman and i invite you to come and join us here at linbrook baptist church and see all that a church can be call linbrook baptist at 516 -599 -9402 that's 516 -599 -9402 or visit linbrookbaptist .org

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that's linbrookbaptist .org introducing 1031 sermon jams but now for the good news that sounds like sweet music in the hell -bound sinner's ears especially if you're like me and you know that you don't need romans 3 to remind you of how wicked you are if you would like to learn more about 1031 sermon jams visit us at our website at 1031sermonjams .com

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or follow us on twitter or facebook god in his glory okay the gospel is about man and his sin welcome back this is chris arnzen yes um i don't know what's my the technology i have i don't have a landline in my house to use my cell phone and i was outside in my car and all of a sudden the iphone said it's too hot the iphone has shut down temporarily well believe me this is not the first time that this has happened to me while conducting a live radio program so this is just a part of my apology that's all right it's nothing to do with you it's par for the course actually yeah but uh you were talking about how the uh the father of a of a shooting uh what was the last thing you heard me say i believe it was when you were in a uh a home where there was a deceased drug dealer uh and you were uh you said that the police off like when when somebody would call up to see if they were okay so yeah so we were um gathering the drugs and the uh money and we would hear steps coming up and it was obviously somebody who was coming in to buy drugs and we would hear them say yo woman you're up there and one of the officers this guy supports yeah come on up and they would come up and they would walk into the apartment and see there the person who they thought they were buying drugs from dead on the floor and they would see four or five uniformed officers and you can imagine the shock on their face and they're like mumbling fumbling and we were all just laughing and goofing and kick them in the butt and said hey get out of here you fool and whatever and um you know totally totally um distant and detached from the fact that a man was lying dead on the floor we were actually making fun of it we did that about four or five times and it was part of the course and then finally towards the end um we heard steps once again and um an older man started coming up get a fedora hat on a large ring of glasses i'll never forget them and like a cheap suit and uh one of the officers saw him and said hey the old man never picked a habit and of course we all left including me and um the old man looked around and looked down at the body and he just cried out my son my son and he made a few steps towards the body and i i kind of like stepped in front of him i said oh sir this is a crime scene and he kind of like fell into my arms you know weeping and then he looked at me and he said please sergeant let me hold my son one more time and i just nodded and i let him and uh and he bent down and uh he held the the son his bloody son you know onto his chest and just cried and remembered my son my son my poor son and there goes over the myself and the other officers i don't know what they were thinking but oh my god i'll never forget that i mean the only thing that went through my mind was that um every man is somebody's son and and you know it kind of like i said thank you lord i said for teaching me um you know i'm not the judge of these people i'll do my job but truly every man is somebody's son and then you know and um i had that scene in my movie and it really changed me and you know that's god's truth really you know and to me i needed something like that to learn it yeah the god uses his providence uh very often in our lives to snap us out of something or to draw us in a particular direction and as far as racism is concerned i have a very dear friend who passed away a couple of years ago dr robert j cameron he was a black presbyterian pastor in new jersey and he actually wrote a book on racism in the church called last pew on the left and he had a very even -handed approach to this sin because he brought up not only the sins of whites in regard to racism but in regard to blacks as well him being a black pastor and in fact a very major christian publisher passed on publishing it even though they had told him it was the finest unsolicited manuscript that they had ever seen but because he criticized the black church in addition to the white church they didn't feel comfortable publishing it but he he said something that will stick with me for the rest of my life that racism is a sin problem not a skin problem in other words it's not white people don't corner the market on racism every race uh is plagued with this sin every ethnicity and uh and it's and also the police departments of the major cities in in our country do not corner the market on this sin either but you're you're in a very unique position not only having battled that sin of racism but also being a former police sergeant and a born -again christian if you could respond to if even if briefly to what the is going on in the inner cities with the hatred being expressed towards the police well you know because i i teach now at a university um to uh students who are going into the police academy um and i tell them what i tell them is this that you know i i truly believe that what officers have to worry about is not so much prejudice against a race or a religion but prejudice against um people who are committing the crimes in other words you you arrest that person be it african -american caucasian spanish christian jew muslim and that's it um i think that i mean i truly believe that most officers if there's any prejudice it's prejudice against bad guys i mean i know that um we were all men in blue and you know we were all mixed and there was no racism among the ranks and i think that i truly think that um most officers um would um treat a let's for example the things that are going on today with um um caucasian officers and um african -american um people were getting shot i i i think that it happens all the time and it would be the same if it was a caucasian um suspect i i really do i think that if there's any prejudice it's that you know cops hate the bad guys that's from my perspective it breaks my heart to see that um people think it's about racism are there bad cops of course there's bad cops there's priests who molest kids of course there's bad cops but i think most cops truly are not racists but they're scared they're they're worried um that they they're just trying to protect themselves to some overreact of course it's everything's in the gray nothing's black and white and it's just that um unfortunately in my opinion okay i tell my students this when you put that uniform on and you're working with all those cops different races the cops are the least prejudice of anybody they don't they don't care if somebody's um black white spanish they just put them in the good guys bad guys category and it really it's really upsetting to me to see um the way the country thinks um cops are so prejudiced and i gotta tell you i think all leaders are doing a horrible job of um of perpetuating racism i really do i i just don't think it's good what what they're saying yeah and uh it's interesting that people have uh attributed racism to some of these deaths of of suspects when african -american police officers have been involved in yeah that's what i don't get you know they'll they'll never know i mean i i most i'm telling you i worked in the inner city new york city and most guys i know i mean they they didn't care it was just was it a criminal or not a criminal they didn't care if the guy was white or black or spanish they didn't care i mean i mean truly that's why it had pained me and to see um the way the city's now i mean i think our country is more divided than ever right now and uh well i agree with you 100 percent uh well i'm not going to give away too much of the movie and there is some of the movie that the folks will still be able to be surprised by involving the baseball team and and other things but uh there is a part of the movie that's even a part of your your advertising campaign that i think we can talk about a bit uh how much of this was true to life in regard to the the uh classroom project that you led your students through this is after your retirement from the police department and you wound up at a christian private school ironically as a as a person who wasn't fully convinced of the existence of god that's interesting that the lord brought you to a christian school amazing i mean i i'll tell a little bit about giving it away i mean the movie is um like i said 95 accurate the way it really went down after i left the forest um to just an incredible circumstance um i was offered a job as a baseball coach at just happened to be a christian school and you know we loved baseball me and my brother would not um so i took the job and uh and they needed a a teacher for i guess a government class but they said oh let's change the criminal justice the last quarter and i said i'm not a teacher and uh you know i have i do have my degrees but i was never a official teacher in school and um but they said no no you can do it tell them stories whatever i thought okay so i winged it i mean it was fun i got it if i called a little common justice and as it evolved it was a christian school but as i found out this christian school not not all of them were believers i mean some of them went there for sports some went there so for whatever reasons i don't know why maybe their parents wanted them private school but they weren't all believers i was shocked and there was some rowdy punk kids in by surprise you know as you'll see in the movie and um there was a tragedy in that the um the youth pastor there the youth pastor um did something really he committed a sin and and he he was fired but the problem was that all these young men and now you know if you're if you're mature in your faith you know you follow a message and not the messenger right you follow the message of christ not the messengers who tell you about it because every man is flawed every man and and you know so you can't you can't look at somebody who mr senator was flawed and say oh because of that i'm not believing christ we know that but they don't know that yet yeah we have judas in the bible who betrayed christ yet he was one of the apostles so people shouldn't reject christ because of judas exactly so um these young men and women 16 17 18 they turned away from christ he was their hero this youth pastor and he committed the sin and he got fired and they just did not believe in christ anymore they most of them they thought he was a liar so as it turned out as it as the year had been going on we had been doing some quote -unquote investigations on some infamous crimes we we we um investigated the uh the assassination of john f kennedy was it a conspiracy and you know i caught the kids that what happened 50 years ago and let's look at some uh valuable written documents and the reliable ones and then we have the same thing with lincoln's assassination i kind of taught them you know even though nobody's nobody on the earth was alive when lincoln was assassinated we can examine some uh historical documents the valid ones and come to conclusions what happened and so as it turned out we had been doing some investigations like that so that day when when i i had a hand um i'm not going to give it up but i had a hand in um having that that youth pastor arrested for what he was doing um and i came in and some of the students by this time i had won most of them over and well they were all my baseball team and and whatever and so i came in that day and some of them were a little bit upset but the class was truly in an uproar over this youth pastor getting arrested and what was the truth what was truth what was lies could they believe anything he said and they they asked me one kid just said to me well what about what you know how could we believe anything he said and i said look he he was telling the truth about not being involved with drugs and stuff like that and and but then there was a couple wise guys said yeah but no but he's a liar we can't believe anything he said and then one other kid jj said especially what he said about jesus christ and that room got quiet and one of the students said to me coach was he right about jesus now i hadn't told them that um my faith was wavering and i didn't know what to believe i hadn't told him that and i hadn't told anybody and so he came right out and said coach was you right about jesus and they they all looked at me and i i didn't i couldn't answer i i didn't know what to say so one of the other guys one of the students says he doesn't know coach doesn't know anything about jesus christ and so another one of the um this kid cooling asian young man he said he was kind of like a one of the intellectual nerdy guys he goes i got an idea coach do do a uh investigation on jesus christ and i and then there was murmurs and what are you an idiot some small kids and then they all just got quiet and looked at me and like with warming eyes and i said oh my god and so i just said um okay we'll we'll do an investigation on the homicide of jesus christ and i had no idea where i was going to start and and i guess the rest of the movie shows um how i did this investigation but let me tell you listen is that you know we as christians will read the bible and they did as god's word but you can't quote the bible you can't say to somebody well the bible says christ falls from the dead if they don't believe in the bible you can't tell them that so one of the kids yelled out and coach you have to do it without the bible and he was right could i could i investigate the homicide of jesus christ and whether he rose from dead without the bible because let's face it the the bible's precious the bible couldn't say christ rose from the dead so yeah for us christians that's it's a great source but not for not for people on the fence so that's what i did i proceeded to um he challenged me and with the with the help of um my assistant coach carl roselle um i began this investigation and i presented it so as i was teaching my class i was learning it myself yeah yeah and it was uh and then you know and that's how the movie proceeded and then obviously um it came to a nice conclusion well uh i'm not gonna it's it's a surprise ending as you saw so it's not like uh one thing i wanted to do was i wanted to make a uh a realistic movie where it's not all hokey and you know some of the movies you know some of the christian movies you know i don't know me i know exactly what you mean i mean i'm not gonna you know it's beautiful any christian movie is great but for me as a police officer i you know really i'm okay that's not the way the world is by the way how did carl feel about the way that he was portrayed in the movie um i'm sorry what was the last thing you said how how did carl was it carl your assistant coach how did he feel about the way that he was portrayed in the movie he was kind of about it wasn't he kind of like a nerdish guy or i mean you know what let me tell you about carl um that guy you know um he was a shot he was boot heavy and you know he was a very soft -spoken humble man and um he was a scientist he taught science he was actually was a scientist at one point you know he was i don't know if you want to classify him as a you know a scholarly nerd or something he didn't get much respect but um the one thing he loved was baseball and i kind of didn't have any many allies many allies there and i took as my assistant coach we had such a great bond and then i told him everything as we went along and as i struggled i almost quit the job you know and he kept me from quitting and um he he gave me that those first couple hints clues as he said to steer my investigation in the right way as he said um you know he's a scientist he he called himself the fat scientist but he said he had his doubts and um he steered me in the right way and um oh my gosh you know i just want to tell you it wasn't for him i don't think i would have made it and you know what um because it's ironic that you um i'm having this interview with today because two days ago he passed away in his sleep wow yeah he was um he was 60 and um he was i'm waiting for we're waiting to hear from your autopsy but um i think you know i think he had a problem heart problems and it was so sad yeah god bless him he he he saved he saved me boy i mean i'm never he was probably my best friend ever and uh you know he just he saved my life he he steered me in the wrong he steered me in the right direction and i was going so so long the whole time and he just gave me the right direction and i'll i'll always love him and remember him yeah and you know yeah days ago he passed away um but i i i'll and you see his character up there you'll you know you'll see you know everybody from the movie um has been calling me up they never met him but as they said um just from what i told them about carl and just from i uh the character that was written about him they could see what a great man he was a great man of christ you know amen so we're going to go to our final break right now if you have any questions for rich romano about his conversion to christianity about the uh the movie the investigator which can be investigated at theinvestigatormovie .com

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just email us right now we are live chrisarnson at gmail .com

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is the email address to email us a question for rich romano chrisarnson at gmail .com we'll be right back after this final break don't go away i'm james white of alphanomega ministries the new american standard bible is perfect for daily reading or in -depth study used by pastors scholars and everyday readers the nasb is widely embraced and trusted as a literal and readable bible translation the nasb offers clarity and readability while maintaining high accuracy to the original languages which the nasb is known for the nasb is available in many editions like a topical reference bible researched and prepared by biblical scholars devoted to accuracy the new topical reference bible includes contemporary topics relevant to today's issues from compact to giant print bibles find an nasb that fits your needs very affordably at nasbible .com

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trust discover and enjoy the nasb for yourself today go to nasbible .com that's nasbible .com

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tired of box store christianity of doing church in a warehouse with all the trappings of a rock concert do you long for a more traditional and reverent style of worship and how about the preaching perhaps you've begun to think that in -depth biblical exposition has vanished from long island well there's good news wedding river baptist church exists to provide believers with a meaningful and reverent worship experience featuring the systematic exposition of god's word and this loving congregation looks forward to meeting you call them at 631 -929 -3512 for service times 631 -929 -3512 or check out their website at wrbc .us

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that's wrbc .us welcome back this is chris zarnes and your host of iron sharpens iron today our guest has been rich romano who is the brother of the older brother of world -renowned award -winning actor ray romano from everybody loves raymond fame and if you'd like to join us on the air we have less than 15 minutes left if you have a question chris arnzen at gmail .com

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chris arnzen at gmail .com and rob on long island i will get to your question in a minute that you've emailed to us i have a quick question very quick about everybody loves raymond because while you were off the air we played a uh an ad for linbrook baptist church and i'm sure many of the folks there are wondering why did they pick linbrook as the setting for everybody loves raymond do you know no we grew up in forest hills queens that's what i thought i got no idea yeah rob from long island uh asks the question since this uh movie that you created is a christian themed movie did you run into any serious problems financing it yeah well look you know it's funny because when i did the script um actually i hadn't um you know i had a doors open for me because of my brother ray and i said hey can you give it to your agency if anybody wants to do it and he went to like 10 major producers and nobody wanted to touch it they just don't want it i think it's a little bit different now with a couple of things on tv but they didn't want it and um i said okay i'll do it myself and i just researched christian producers and um you know i did find one and um we got to finance you know fairly low budget for a million dollars but um you know after that when we wanted to distribute it same thing we had to go to christian distributors you know and uh um and distributed it got into the theaters for a while but yes i mean it's not that whatever their prejudice or anything it's just that they don't think that it appeals to the masses and if it doesn't appeal to the masses they don't make money and so they don't want to bother with it you know so um you know obviously there's some christian movies out there that do real well but it is a hard go and uh you know i did it because i know christ called me to it and i i was going to do it no matter what but it is hard it's hard to get it financed uh you know as i went to one tv producer and and i was going to have another tv movie at one point and he said no no no they want them the sex drugs vampires night of the living dead all that stuff yeah so it's hard it's hard but i don't know if rob is thinking of doing it but they're all christian producers out there who could do an independent movie for a million a few million dollars they are out there and uh one of the things that uh you had shared with me over lunch which you gave me permission to address and i'm not going to ask you for any details necessarily but you had said something to me pretty interesting uh and i'm not going to be i'm not being sensationalist when i when i say this i wanted to let our audience know that i'm not being a sensationalist but you but you actually believe that since you started making this film both you and the star wade williams who is also a believer as you said uh or experience you think you're experiencing some kind of uh demonic oppression or something like that uh that has been going on since you began this project with making this film you know you know chris um when i made this film i kind of made a deal with god number one um i wasn't doing it for money i was just getting a message out and you know some people made money i wasn't one of them but that was that's not the main thing when i went down there i had some extremely devout christians told me that i was going to be attacked and you know i said all right you know and me and wade williams it's been a rough two years and what um what some uh mature christians have told me that um the devil will attack you where it hits the hardest and that's in um your family you know and both of us have struggled with our families you know specifically our marriage if marriage is tough in the country you know and not and that even without that and um so we've gotten both of us have gone through some rough rough times you know just gotta keep praying that we could work it out i don't know but um i i truly believe i truly believe that um um since the movie came out you know i mean what joy for me that i can get the story out and some people you know come to christ because of it but i will accept these um this oppression that satan has given me and wade williams will tell what it has been has been rough well i certainly uh request that everybody listening who is a genuine follower of christ if you could pray for rich romano and for wade williams who starred in the movie in the role of detective bonacore which in reality is supposed to be ray romano i'm sorry rich romano and if you could pray for both of them and that the lord would uh would bring them peace and strength and courage and confidence that that he is with them during this trial these trials and that uh romans 8 28 was true when it came from the paul the pen of the apostle paul and it's true today that all things work together for the good for those who are the call for those who love god and are the call according to christ jesus and uh we just uh offer our prayers up for you and uh yeah and you were you know we're both on facebook wade williams and richard romano if anybody wants to throw a prayer of uh just uh encouragement to us i'm sure wade would appreciate it and and you know they they're they're free to um say hello to us on facebook and just maybe help and join us in a prayer or something it'd be really great we both we both need the courage amen in fact there was something very interesting that uh i saw uh i am not a fan of the oprah winfrey show by any stretch of the imagination but years ago i saw ray and the whole cast of everybody loves raymond uh in fact i believe peter boyle was still living at the time it was on there and uh but the whole cast as i recall was on that program and um brad garrett is that not his name who played robert brad garrett interestingly uh urged ray your brother to take a note out of his pocket that ray said that he carries with him wherever he goes and he's been carrying with them ever since he left queens for hollywood after he he got the uh sitcom uh everybody loves raymond and uh the the text the the scriptural text was what profiteth a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul and i was fascinated that brad would actually urge him to read that on the air yeah i put that in i put that little note in raymond's suitcase before he left and um we never we never talked about it and then nine years later when he's retiring from the show the last show he came out and he said um i saved this note from my brother for nine years and now i'm going to work on my soul or something to that effect it was really nice and you know chris is this funny brad garrett i mean something must be christ might be knocking on his door because you know he's of the jewish faith and i know he doesn't believe christ in the son of god oh we got a long gray i love the guy but maybe some maybe christ is just knocking on his door now you know that's right well uh obviously uh many jews in the in the first century of the church were called to him and they still get called to him by his grace and mercy every day and we have a lot of wonderful ministries that dedicate themselves to reaching out to the people through the gospel of jesus christ yeah so i'll pray for pray for that whole crew there that was on the uh on the everybody loves raymond program you never know and i know that patricia heaton who i met on the huntington long island years ago at a book signing i know that she professes to love christ and she yes she used to be a member of a church in brooklyn that is pastored by a friend of mine um and uh so it's interesting i know that she's very pro -life which is must be a lonely place in the in the world of hollywood oh it sure is boy it sure is well before we go off the air rich i want you to just unburden your heart to our listeners and let them leave the program with whatever you want most etched in their hearts and minds okay i would just like to say that you know that this world could be confusing and christ did say that we will experience troubles now we may but we will experience troubles but take all dry up come to the world i i just would urge anybody um anybody out there whether you strengthen your faith in christ or from what i believe is a lot of people are on the fence you're on the fence just god gave us a mind just go investigate it for yourselves investigate in any way you can anything you do in life just investigate whether jesus christ is a son of god you have any doubt and and you know just go with an open mind look at the unbiased evidence you don't have to take anybody's word from it and then if you then if you do come to conclude that he's a son of god then you can read his word in the bible and that truly means something to you so that's just we'll leave you with that just if you have any doubt investigate whether you believe jesus christ is a son of god you need any tips or anything like i said facebook me i'll see you in the right direction great and of course the apostle paul commended the bereans for investigating every word that he said uh and even though he was an apostle he didn't just tell people just believe what i say because i'm an apostle he he commended the bereans for testing him with the with the uh word of god and he also uh warned in the book of galatians uh he warned the church of galatia not even to believe the message from him or an angel from heaven if they had another gospel so that's uh another good reason that you should be investigating these things prayerfully and you know it's not let me just say that it's not a sin to have doubt and to investigate that's what god wants us to do and uh i want to let our listeners know that the investigator movie you can find out more about it at the investigator movie .com

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that's the investigator movie .com you can also order the dvd from cumberland valley bible book service which is cvbbs .com

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that's c for cumberland v for valley bb for bible book and s for service .com

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and they would be more than happy to take your order i also have to thank from the bottom of my heart my dear friends at solid ground christian books for being a new sponsor of the iron sharpens iron radio program solid -ground -books .com