Mike Rimmer interviewed CHARLES NORMAN back in 2010 about the controversial Fallen Angel documentary
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Mike: You have the power to settle this.
Charles: No. An avuncular test is inconclusive. It's a no-win situation. Let's say I do have an avuncular test. All it can do is indicate that you might be related, or you might not be related. It's a very narrow pendulum: it doesn't swing yes or no, it just totters around 12 o'clock. If it says, 'Yeah, you're possibly related', the Wallaces can triumph. If it says, 'Probably not', they can say, 'It's just an avuncular test: it doesn't prove anything'. They'll keep on with their claims. How does it behove anyone to have an inconclusive test?
Mike: It must be very difficult for you. How do you feel about the film's lack of grace? Has it affected your views of your fellow Christians?
Charles: No. This is a tempest in a teapot. David Di Sabatino wants this film to be controversial. It's nothing, it's insignificant: he can barely get anybody to show up to the movie theatres. He in fact has to rent out the movie theatres to screen his own film. Hardly anybody sees it; half the people who do just laugh and say, 'What a bunch of garbage.' Some people are David Di Sabatino fans, and they totally love the movie. I don't think it's particularly well done: it doesn't have any dynamic. It's not a good story, it has no third act. When I saw it, I laughed out loud several times. There were some pretty funny parts: 'Wow, they missed the mark on that one'. It doesn't make me doubt my fellow Christians. I'm disappointed in Sabatino. He has money and ability and editing facilities to make good art, and he's not - he's just wallowing in the gutter.
Mike: The Bible tells us not to gossip. Are we gossipping?
Charles: We're speaking out. The person who's gossiping is Randy Stonehill, and Sabatino, a couple other people in the film. They're the ones who are gossiping. Is it bad for us to reply? The Bible says we should turn our other cheek, but it also says we should rush to the aid of a brother who's being attacked. I think that's what we're doing here. I don't think we're gossiping. We're not compelled to turn the other cheek, because it's not us being attacked, it's someone else. We're allowed to discuss that, and defend him.
Mike: The layout of Allen Flemming's website is very similar to LarryNorman.com.
Charles: The layout is the same, because it's the exact same HTML template. Allen thought it would be funny if the first page is a mock-up of Sabatino's website, and the rest is the same artwork, same JPEGs, from Larry Norman's site.
Mike: The one thing that makes me uneasy is that the site gets into personal attacks on Sabatino. It's not turning the other cheek as Larry and the family have done over the years.
Charles: Is he being attacked? Doesn't it just say a list of things he's done? He's called and threatened members of my family, or emailed threats to us. I linked to some postings of correspondence he's had with other people. I don't know that we're attacking him, or that Flemming is attacking him. I'll have to re-look at the site. But I don't care: I think it's fine to attack him. He's attacking us.
Mike: But that makes you as bad as him.
Charles: It doesn't make me, it makes the website as bad as him. I'll have to look at the page: I don't know where he's attacked. Flemming writes the stuff, I supply the information. I'm working with Allen on this website. And I don't mind attacking Sabatino. He's done nothing the last two years except attack my family. I don't know why my family is fair game. He keeps on talking about the Norman family. It's actually me that he has a problem with. Who's my family? He doesn't even know my family, but he's attacking us, calling us all liars. That was OK: we were quiet over two years, since Larry died, and enough is enough. He's not going away, he just keeps on insulting, calling us liars and all sorts of things. Maybe this website will get him to stop. It's getting tiring now after two years of attacks.
Mike: Someone in the chat room says you don't want to take the DNA test because you're Larry's son.
Charles: Yeah, that's another rumour. I don't know if Sabatino started it, but he's certainly been perpetuating it. Sabatino has been telling people in private quite a while that I'm actually Larry's son, I'm not his brother. He just said that on a radio show. I brought it up on a radio interview; Sabatino was being interviewed and I called in and said, 'What about this rumour you're talking about? You're telling people I'm Larry's son.' He said, 'I never said that publicly!' I said, 'You said it privately'. So I got him to admit he's been saying. I provided my birth certificate to Flemming. He made a scan of it, put it on the website. Sabatino, instead of saying, 'Maybe I was wrong', he says, 'It's fake! That's not a real birth certificate!' I don't know what to do short of meeting him at the county clerk's office in Santa Clara, California where I was born and have a clerk hand over an authenticated birth certificate. If anyone would like to verify that I am indeed Larry's brother, I'll drive down to California if anyone wants to meet me at the county clerk's office, we'll get an authorised copy of the birth certificate. You can see my parents listed plainly as Joe and Margaret Norman.
I met Larry twice and throughout my life his music has Helped me in a closer Walk with God if it was not for the Music i don’t know where I would be in Christ. To this day I still listen and Broadcast his songs on the Radio. It will be a Joy to meet him in Heaven and see what Music he can come up with. Love you Larry see you soon. Garret G