Listen to Gordon Douglas and Jacob Barr talk about Gordon’s journey in the prolife world.
Summary
This is Jacob Barr, and I had the distinct pleasure of hosting pastor and comedian Gordon Douglas on the Pro-Life Teen Podcast. Gordon shared his extensive involvement in the pro-life movement, stemming from his early days as a youth pastor. He was deeply moved by the film “Silent Scream,” which showcases the horrors of abortion, prompting him to actively support the cause. His journey intertwined with his pastoral work and his passion for comedy, which he uses as a tool to raise funds and awareness for pregnancy centers.
Gordon has been actively involved in speaking at fundraising banquets for pregnancy centers, bringing his unique blend of humor and inspiration to the events. He believes in celebrating life and encourages others to view pregnancy centers as an opportunity to extend the church’s mission, particularly in aiding single mothers and broken families. His commitment to the pro-life cause is not just professional but also personal, having parented 24 children, both adopted and biological, with his wife.
His approach to comedy is about sharing stories that bring laughter and joy while addressing significant life issues. He emphasizes the need for more awareness and education about abortion and its implications on women and society. Gordon also highlights the importance of pastors and churches in supporting the pro-life movement and pregnancy centers.
In his discussion, Gordon shared various stories where he witnessed God’s intervention and the power of prayer in pro-life work. He spoke about the joy of seeing lives saved and the impact of his work on adopting children from challenging backgrounds, including those affected by China’s one-child policy.
To wrap up our insightful conversation, Gordon offered a heartfelt prayer for pregnancy center directors and workers, asking for God’s wisdom, protection, and guidance in their endeavors to save lives and spread hope.
Reflecting on our conversation, the following hashtags resonate with the content: #ProLifeMovement, #CelebratingLife, #ComedyForACause, #PregnancyCenterSupport, #AdoptionStories, #GodsIntervention, #PrayerInAction, #ParentingJourney, #LifeSavingImpact, #ChurchAndProLife.
Transcript
The transcript was automatically generated and may contain errors.
Gordon Douglas :
Hi, this is pastor and comedian Gordon Douglas welcoming you to the pro-life Teen Podcast and we’re going to have some fun sharing some stories of inspiration. Learn some of the truths of what I learned as I get to speak at pregnancy centers around the world and some little insights into what it’s like at our home with all of our kids now, You know, because of COVID, the government said you can’t have more than 10 or more so we had to ask six of our kids to leave so we have a house full and we love to share what God is doing in our home and our ministry to go out and encourage the pregnancy center so stay tuned for some great information.
Jacob Barr :
So Gordon, I’m excited to have you on the pro-life Team Podcast as well as I understand you know you’re essentially your involvement in the pro-life movement has been over a long period of time.
Gordon Douglas :
Can you?
Jacob Barr :
Share with those who may not know you as of yet, sort of like a little bit about your background and your story for in the in the pro-life world, as if you were talking to a couple of Prancy clinic directors.
Gordon Douglas :
Oh, from just the pregnancy center world, because now that that’s a small snippet of my years on the earth, but it is a good one. And I was a youth pastor in most of the eighties and nineties nineteen years as a youth pastor and our little church, Stony Bank Community Church started in 1811 We had a Sunday night service and that one night we had a special guest speaker who showed a movie called Silent Scream. And you’re probably too young to remember it, but it was cutting edge technology at the time, showing a baby fighting off the instruments of abortion. And the movie kind of ends with the baby’s mouth open in a silent screen as they were about to take its life it was so powerful. And I just sat there in tears and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. And as a youth pastor, I got to hear this young girl talk about her vision to start a pregnancy center, didn’t even know what that was and to help girls and then I became very aware as a youth pastor how often I was going to need the services of a group like that to help girls who thought they were pregnant, girls who were going through some difficult times so sadly, issues of abuse. And I tell people all the time when somebody’s there for you and your greatest need, you have a friend for life. And I would get very tearful if I got into the whole story but one of those people was my 14 year old daughter whose best friend had a very unfortunate experience with a boy that should have known better and done stuff that he never did and it was three years i’m just struggle of cancel and working through everything but the pregnancy center was there with us every step of the way. So i immediately was involved. I took my youth group on protest we walked and marched outside of pregnancy centers. I became the pastoral advisor to the board of our center right outside Philadelphia, the Delaware County Pregnancy Center and until this year I think 32 straight years I was that pastoral advisor i just got informed that I’m being relieved of my duties we have long term limits at our center, but I’m still very much involved. So let’s just a quick overview of how I got into the pro-life work and then the whole idea of speaking at banquets is a whole different ball game if you want me to go there.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, please. Yeah talk about what you do today when it comes to speaking and sort of you know what that’s like.
Gordon Douglas :
Sure oh, I absolutely love my job. You know, right out of Treat school i didn’t go to college then i became interested in the area of comedy that’s a long story, but God brought a woman who had incredible experience on TV all the time. Worked with Frank Sinatra for years. She took me under her wing and start training me to do stand up comedy back before there were clubs back before it was there were only three stations on TV there was no cable, there was no Comedy Central and I had some great success early on ended up in Hollywood, got on a couple big TV shows. One that I always mentioned is Carol Barnett although I only ask a question at the beginning. How would she turn the audience? I was there in the audience and I got to spend the day with the with the whole crew after that and it was just wonderful. But then God got a hold of my life i end up becoming a pastor 20 years later. Someone asked me to do a comedy show and I did and they taped it and they sent it to some guy named James Dobson who put it on a radio. And I’m speaking out of Colorado Springs at a family conference and I went from this little Church of 2030 people where I was pastoring to speaking and focus on the family who said, hey, next week we’re doing a weekend conference for PK not pastors, kids, but pastors, kids. And they said we got a young comedian named Shawn de Pierce that we’re working with you two would be fun together. So I end up flying to Tennessee doing a show with Shawn de Pierce. And she introduced me to a guy named Dennis Swanberg, who is a wonderful pastor and does impressions and has his own TV show out of Texas and he said, I know this guy named Mike Williams he’s trying to get Christian comedians together i didn’t even know there were others. And I got to meet Mike Williams and he is just phenomenal he’s been the number one fundraiser for pregnancy centers, I believe 10 years in a row. And I sent him my little cassette back in 1994 and he wrote me back, hey, this is some of the funniest stuff I’ve ever heard why have I never heard of you i said why? I kind of gave up one comedy to become a pastor. He said, now you’ve got to do this people need to hear your story. And he said, by the way, i’m going to be in Pittsburgh next week or Gettysburg gettysburg. He said, how far are you from Gettysburg and I said, well, it’s about 3 hours so he said we’ll be there. I’m doing a show for a pregnancy center. And I I’ve learned quickly, you don’t say no to Mike, but I was also interested so I thought, well, maybe God is resurrecting a dream. So I drove the three hours up there, and as soon as I got there, he straightened my jacket and said, all right, good, you’re doing 10 minutes tonight. I said, why did he said lesson number one you showed up number two always be ready to do 10 minutes no matter where you are. And I did a few minutes and then I watched him do incredible comedy, share his powerful testimony. And then they asked people for money to support a pregnancy center. And afterwards, as comedians do, we went to a diner, talked about what worked and what didn’t work and he said, why are you doing this? Was like, doing what he said, Speaking of banquets, You’re a pastor, you work at the pregnancy center and you’ve got great comedy, Why don’t you do this? So he called his agent up and said, hey, we, yeah, we have this guy here. Is there anybody that needs a booking and they said, well there’s three or four small events if people don’t have a budget. But he said, well, give Gordon a chance. And I did these basically freebies just to see what I could do and God blessed them. And something like 74 % of the people I speak at something like 74 is kind of a specific number. But I keep prep 74 %, set a record or have the biggest night they’ve ever had in terms of fundraising. And only one person that I know was higher than that and that’s my buddy Mike Williams who teaches me so since then I’ve been doing pregnancy centers and it got so big. I do it more than just pregnancy centers i do what’s called hilarity for charity. I raise money for any good ’cause, whether it’s fighting cancer, getting an electric wheelchair for a couple that has a child with special needs, buying a handicap van we’ve helped a couple raise money to adopt A child. We just did one for a Ronald McDonald i say we it’s meet my family is part of our ministry. Raise money for a Ronald McDonald House. I used to call it comedy for A cause, but I like hilarity for charity better it’s got a little more ring to it. So as that’s what I do as an income what I do to feed my family, which is huge as you well know. And but I also still pastor and I speak and preach at churches almost every Sunday as God allows me to travel the country. And when I’m not doing fundraisers because that’s a pretty small window, usually six weeks in the spring, six weeks in the fall. I do pastors events, I do youth events, I do couples events. My wife and I were recently named parents of the year for the state of Pennsylvania because of all of our kids and then that has opened up a lot of doors to speak at parenting groups. So that’s a big overview. But I do about 120 programs a year and I absolutely love it absolutely. But I got home yesterday, I leave tomorrow for Illinois and then I’m going up to Minnesota for the sixth time in six weeks, and then I’m heading down Florida so I usually do two three programs a week and now my kids are older now, so I’m able to travel god’s perfect timing, it still blows me away. Why didn’t this happen twenty thirty years? Ago and, it’s like well, now I see his wisdom.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, you’re probably had elementary kids 20 years ago or how old young is your youngest child today?
Gordon Douglas :
Yes, yeah i’ve got many listeners may not know, but yeah, we have parented 24 children and that started after we were told we could not have kids physically impossible. There’s no way it could happen. So the Long story short, without all the jokes, I can do the jokes, but they’re also on my YouTube channel and my recent appearance on The Huckabee Show. But we took it three boys off the streets of South Philadelphia, terrible stories of neglect and abuse and addiction and we basically got legal custody through a variety of means. And then my father-in-law moved in after a stroke and my brother-in-law who has Down syndrome, they moved in with us and we had five. And then a local prison called and we they asked if we could watch prisoners so we took in two prisoners. So we had seven and then when the three boys left, we took in three more. And then there was a missionary and during this 10 years, as our family grew and grew and grew, God showed he had a sense of humor and blessed us with five miracle birth children. So my website, I believe, says we have 19 kids, but that’s a few years old we have this guy, an eye rapture, who’s making us a new website we got to update some numbers through a lot so that. So that’s the backdrop but my youngest, she’s been with us for six years i’ll get tearful by another daddy’s little girl, but she just turned 19 and she is a sophomore in college. So yeah, the last 10 years where I really started traveling across the nation, all my kids were in high school or beyond i came in one day, walked into the house with my suitcase, and my kids were like, where were you it’s like I was in Texas like, how long? They didn’t even know they hadn’t looked up from their machine long enough to know I was gone for 48 hours, so.
Jacob Barr :
Wow, that that’s an amazing story of how. Yeah so essentially you felt, yeah, essentially you and your wife were faced with not having children and so you ended up adopting and then you find, you know, can you just share that again, like that just seems like, I’m not sure what the word is it miraculous is it amazing it’s actually very intriguing.
Gordon Douglas :
Hopefully it’s inspirational and but yeah, it wasn’t. People say, oh, I hear that a lot, where someone adopts a child because they’ve tried everything and it didn’t work and then they end up having a child it’s actually very rare you hear about it because it’s rare. But in our case, it happened simultaneously we were taken in kids and found out my wife was having a baby and you can’t stop. And then once the court system found out that there’s this pastor that’s willing, willing to help kids that are in trouble, they kept sending kids our way and God kept sending babies so it just happened simultaneously. I was asked on that interview recently with a Christian comedian, Nazareth out of LA he has a great podcast. And he said, did your birth kids resent the boys off the street? Because they were all boys. You can’t mix troubled boys with troubled girls. And I said, well, I have to ask them so the last family dinner, they said, really, we never knew the difference there was always somebody in the house. They said what we noticed is that you treated, you were much stricter with us, the birth kids, than you were with the boys off the street. And it was true, because they needed healing, they needed comfort, they needed some space. And my kids, I didn’t want them to end up like the boys on the street. So I was doubly protective, maybe overly so but you learn my kids always threaten they’re going to tell people what I do so I’ll lose my parents of the year title, but yeah, when I do my program, I’m very transparent that we are not perfect parents, nor are we the best parents. We represent parents. We are a family of broken, blended people, and any problem that any family has out there, we are facing it. And people automatically assume it’s the kids we took off the street but no, my birth kids have had struggles too, and that always surprises people we have these wrong assumptions that but people ask me after almost every show hey, can I live at your house it must be fun. It’s yeah, we have fun i have a sense of humor but I am a strict dad and these boys who have battled addiction, they need very clear boundaries and very clear consequences and sadly there’s three or four that aren’t talking to me right now because they had to leave. And you can’t bring drugs here you can’t do certain things you can’t. And i just can’t risk my family or my neighbors with some of the activity and it’s very difficult. But yeah, again, god makes some pretty clear boundaries up i’m very much about grace but anyway, that’s a maybe a little bit more i get into the parenting talk, but wow. But i share a lot of that at banquets because so much of what pregnancy centers do is training young parents everything from how to nurse a baby to, you know, the steps of development, which is still just mind boggling. What happens in the womb is such a miracle but what happens those first two years of the personality of the first word and the first step? But that doesn’t stop. I mean, my wife was upstairs now calling my youngest birth child who had a birthday yesterday, and we sent a message, but she was away and, you know, we’re still parenting. You know, she’s 28 or 29 or third she’s one of those that changes every year i can’t.
Jacob Barr :
Wow so with this, with your, you know, the pro-life work, can you think of a story where you seeing God’s fingerprints or you seeing God answer prayer? I mean it. I feel like you’re already touched on several, but can you what what’s the story that comes to mind when you try and think about you know where you can point to where God answered prayer or be got involved with something that you experienced first hand?
Gordon Douglas :
Always i am a storyteller, right? The one that that’s most fresh is because I do a fair amount of radio interviews when I’m coming into a town, I usually get on a Christian station, sometimes a secular station, just to announce the banquet, what I’m doing, give some exposure to the banquet and this one disc jockey a lot of disc jockeys are frustrated stand ups and he was trying to be funny and he wasn’t and he was. He was a little rude and he wasn’t real excited about the interview. And as I was sharing the joy and I have it, that may or may or not slip Jesus into the conversation. I’d like to do that but he really said sarcastically so do you think what you do really makes a difference? I mean you’re just telling jokes and I said, Oh my goodness I could tell you a story just recent, a dear friend i have worked part time two three days a week at a school for kids with cerebral palsy, a place where my brother-in-law attended. My brother-in-law had Down syndrome and went to a school for kids with special needs. And one of the teachers that I had known for 20 years, her husband, died very suddenly. And I was at line in the funeral, a long line wrapped around the church. And I’m just there and I’m a heartbroken for this teacher. And somebody yelled, there’s comedian Gordon Douglas. And I think, Oh, my goodness, it’s neat to have a celebrity sighting a little bit. I like that, but not at a funeral. And this lady came up and is hugging me and yelling, I can’t believe it’s you i can’t believe it’s you. And I was like, and I was like, please be quiet my friend is up there crying and she’s like, you don’t understand. 13 years ago, do you remember doing a show to help a couple adopt A baby? And I said, oh, I sure do east Ocean Baptist Church i’ll never forget that money because they wanted to raise twenty five thousand dollars and I had never done an event where they wanted to raise that much money, which is a whole different subject why is adoption so expensive that’s a that’s a whole different sermon. But I said i didn’t have a lot of faith. But I went in there and I shared some jokes i shared what we do on our home. And I asked people, would you help this young couple raise the money so that they could have a baby? And I said I will never forget that money because when we counted the money there was over twenty five thousand dollars, I, saw i still, I still remember it. And she said, Gordon, I was that mother. And of course I’ve done 2000 shows since then i didn’t remember and she’s shaped and she said look over there and in the parking lot of the church was this Chinese boy wearing a leather jacket from America. And she said he’s in this country today because you told jokes 13 years ago and I’m in tears. Not because of the funeral was like because sometimes when you’re in ministry, you don’t see a lot of fruit as a pastor and you can preach for years and not see maybe someone coming to the Lord. That’s one of the reasons I love pregnancy centers. Every week I get a prayer update from my director every week these four girls came in. Pray for these three girls who are abortion vulnerable pray for this particular Every week we’re seeing a baby saved every week there’s something good happening and I’m a DDHD have you noticed? I just. I love results i love fruit. And so that’s just one that’s just i mean every week there’s a miracle. But to see that boy with the Chinese features but speaking perfect English who would have been aborted because of the one child policy, somehow, some way they were able to get this boy out. And i i’m still, it’s goosebumps i got goosebumps i’ve, i hope I never get over it. People say you’ve been doing this for 20 years i mean how do you stay so excited how can you not be excited? You know, someone is alive today because we gave a gift someone’s alive today because of what we do at these centers and then they saw your website or they saw something else and of course the boys that we’ve taken in. I stay in touch with most of them very regularly and one is a Marine Fort well, I should say, well you’re never an ex Marine but he’s in his forties and we talk regularly but he shocked me the other day. He calls at least once a week and he called and he said they call me different names in the nineties I was G Dog, G Diddy, Pastor G Beth. But you know his birth father is alive so he everybody calls my wife mom but they call me pastor G or pastor whatever. But he called up and he said, do you know when I knew you loved me that was his first not how’s the Eagles or the Phillies or you know hey how’d you how was your trip? He started the question. He said, you know when I knew you loved me. I said wow you you’ve got my attention. He said you grounded me the week before i graduated high school. I said grounded you you’re lucky I grounded you i wanted to kill you. He’s like, he broke every rule he figured he had one week to go and he was going to go out and do whatever he wanted. And he came walking in our house after being away for four days where we called police at hospitals we had no clue where he was and I mean he broke our heart. And once I found out he was OK, I wanted to kill him, which is kind of like, but you know what I’m saying. But he said i never had parents that cared where I went or what I did i never knew that you would cry because I broke a rule. And he said I’ve never forgotten that. And I oh goodness gracious, I’m a comedian, but I’m becoming the crying comedian when I think about that yeah, what we do and that includes what you do with the websites and connecting with folks and we are sharing a message of hope. And we are connecting with people in ways I can’t even fathom with this Internet thing. You’re good. We got the room together, Dad at care, dad and you know, because I ask you 100 questions about computers because I’m old i’m old. I joke the only thing I know about computers is why they call that thing a cursor. It’s like I’m learning.
Jacob Barr :
And i was talking with, yeah, I was talking with Dan Culp about his story of adoption. And it made me think like when you’re talking about, you know, helping someone adopt out of China when they had the one child policy. I mean I’m sure several adoption stories help them, help them towards, you know where they are today, which is you know, adoption has been greatly did since that time and so like that’s pretty amazing that you actually were helping someone adopted you know and that you know very difficult time under the under those very strict policies and so on my mind I’m thinking, I’m wondering like I’m wondering if that policy, you know, if you know that adoption along with others you know it probably had a big influence on future visions there and there’s still a lot of room to grow obviously and China’s a horrific place for abortion but just with the with the adoption growing it’s amazing to see how they have you know there’s been progress that’s been made at least.
Gordon Douglas :
Yeah you mentioned by buddy Dan Culp we are very good friends we have done a lot of programs together he has preached at my church. I’ve got to speak at his church and for those little listening, they may not know but he he’s adopted three children of the most unadoptable children from overseas China and Russia. And it’s it is his book of how that happened reads like a James Bond model how they got in, how they got him out, the mistakes that were made. I mean, it’s the old books I used to read in the fifties and sixties about smuggling Bibles in Behind the Iron Curtain, his life. And he’s really funny as well. And and he sings i always said he was the lead singer in a Christian lock band and I was like, come on, Lord, spread the talent out a little bit.
Jacob Barr :
But not oh, that’s good. That’s really good. So what is something, My next question is what is something that comes to mind that most pranks, the clinic directors may not know that you would like to share like you know what may only have 20 % adoption by pranks, the clinic directors, but yet you would you would enjoy more people understanding or knowing or what do you think of when I say that question or something that might be you?
Gordon Douglas :
Sure well, when I think about me, well, i thought it was relating to career and if I’m on the wrong track, just let me know. But a lot of directors, yeah, almost all of them, do a fundraising banquet and many of them will not even consider a comedian, ’cause they don’t think abortion is funny. And i hear that a lot. And I said, well, I’m not talking about abortion are you talking about abortion? I’m not coming to a banquet to talk about i’m coming to celebrate life. And I’ve actually had to ask my agent to take the word comedian off of my profile and just say inspirational speaker or motivational speaker. But what they don’t know is the Bible is still true and God loves a cheerful giver. The hilarious giver and if you look at the stats if it’s a fundraiser shouldn’t you hire somebody who’s good at raising funds. And if you look at those who have been most successful the comedians are right at the top of the list including my buddy Mike Williams and Paul Aldridge and myself we have a little I don’t know if you can see my badge laugh for life team i don’t know if it’s might be reflective. So we. So I want them to know it’s OK to laugh and to celebrate. But you know if I was marketing myself to pregnancy center directors or those who put together the banquet, I bring so much more to the table than just comedy. I share these stories of what’s going on in our home i share their story. I put on my pastor’s hat and i know from my experience people invest in two things if you’re at a banquet, they want to know what’s working let’s hear about the results, because these are mostly business the businessmen, the men write the bigger checks. Women write out of emotion and they’ll support you but the men write the bigger checks. So we have to know this is working. And number two is they invest in vision. You know, with your help, here’s what we’re going to do. We want to go medical we want to add a second center we want to buy a mobile unit. Let’s get excited about where this is going. And the one I did last night, the night before, in Minnesota, It was their fiftieth, anniversary and the founding couple was there they’re in their eighties. How neat to hear their stories, starting in their kitchen and then getting a small room at a church and then finding a small storefront and over the 50 years that I love faithfulness, I need, we need to honor those who have gone before us. But I’m the optimist i’ve read the and I believe the best days are still ahead. And I’m all about growth and growing and reaching even more people, so I’m not sure if that’s what you were asking, what pregnancy centers need to?
Jacob Barr :
Know well, that was exactly yeah i was actually, you know, I had some notes saying I wanted you to speak about you know, the important you know the opportunity to bring a comedian to do an event and how that has good fruit or benefit for an organization to receive and I think you’re right a lot of many basic cleaning directors probably don’t fully understand that and but for those who do who have experienced it makes a lot of sense that, you know, that ‘d be something to share that that’s a really good opportunity to raise funds in a. In a joyful yeah. Just as much as we have to mourn, we have as much to celebrate when it comes to lives being saved yeah and so, and it is the Bible says, to mourn with those who are mourning and to rejoice with those who are full of who are rejoicing and so i think in the end we ought we in the pro-life world, we experience both regularly we experience mourning and we experience rejoice and we get to see pictures of babies and pictures of moms and new families. And there’s a lot to be joyful about and it just as much as there is to be sad and mourning about really i think there we have plenty of both of both spaces.
Gordon Douglas :
I mean as a testimony, I mean my website that you’re doing and what’s on the Ambassador website is the fact that over 70 % have me back the next year. And I believe that’s one of the top five highest repeat many there’s many good speakers out there, many stories of people who had abortions, survived abortions, performed abortions. And they have one basic talk and it’s their story, which is great. But i have three different shows for banquets, just for banquets, because the time is limited and the number one comment I get is this was the most fun we’ve ever had at a banquet usually you go away sad or guilty and if you don’t give the night somebody’s going to die. I celebrate and I and with that I do some things other speakers don’t do because I have the time. I love to come in a day early and I just did this past week out in Minnesota and I got to speak at a Christian School and it was supposed to be ninth grade and up ’cause I talk about love, sex and dating and I want to get a message of abstinence and prevention and purity out there so they don’t need the free pregnancy test. But the school got excited they saw my videos and they invited the whole school so I had K through 12 which is a little hard to talk about love, sex and dating with second graders. So i shifted it up a little bit and talked about my more, my testimony and our kids and decisions that we make and just touched a little bit. But I got to announce I’m here tonight because tomorrow I’ll be speaking at this group for this pregnancy center because I want them to know there are folks out there who care. And sadly, kids even in sixth seventh eighth grade middle school, I’m hearing stories of the need to reach them with the message. They need to know where the pregnancy center is, sadly. So I get to do that tomorrow i get to speak, where am I going tomorrow i’m going to somewhere, Illinois, San Juan, Illinois. And they put together a pastor’s lunch. Because sadly over half the pastors in America are not involved at all in the pro-life movement, which just boggles my mind. And the reasons for that are multitude. They’re overwhelmed they’re not prepared they’re threatened they don’t want to lose people. And they are somehow they see the pregnancy center as competition when really it’s a partner. They’re going to do for the church What the church can is not equipped to do. But I try to get across to them, If the statistics are real, it’s somewhere between one out of three and one out of four women under 40 have had an abortion in the church and outside the church. So you look at a church with 3040 women, there’s 10 victims that need counsel the whole need some outreach and many times it’s the deacon’s wife or someone in the choir or the praise group or even the pastor’s wife. And they’re most pastors are just so caught up with keeping their church going that yeah, we spend so much time on a message that we that we forget that we’re yeah, we’re supposed to be shepherds, too and I challenge them. You know, we need healthy sheep and there’s a lot of sheep out there that are hurting. And so i bring that to the table about many speakers have that freedom in their schedule. And a wonderful lady her name is Sunny down in Louisiana. And I told her what I do and she had me come and do a pastor’s breakfast at like 7:00 Then she took me to a Catholic Church with about 400 students 400 Catholic school. And then from there I went to the local public school, thirteen hundred students at a high school gym. And down South you can talk about God, family, country, and you’re not censored. And then she took me to a lunch where I spoke at a Rotary Club. And then that night I did the banquet because I use me i don’t want to sit in a hotel room. And as you can already tell, I never shut up so it’s like, if I’m at a hotel, I’m on the phone, i’m the chap. I’m the chaplain of the CCA, the Christian Comedy Association. So the last two years my ministry has been to oversee 400 bipolar, depressed comedians that are all looking for work during a COVID crisis. So it’s part of what I do every day i call a comedian and I call a pastor just to encourage them because I think that’s my gift i like to encourage people and it’s been hard for two years. I had 0 bookings for two years, 0 and but me and my kids, you know, we cut grass, we clean houses, you know, they have this habit, they want to eat every day so if we do that, I got to go out and get some money, so.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, you probably had several bookings and then when probably March of 2020 came, they probably started to evaporate and get knocked.
Gordon Douglas :
Off 3030 out of 33 cancelled right away and then the other three eventually they tried and tried and eventually, yeah, we tried doing it virtually but comedy by Zoom is not fun. It’s all a different challenge. But I did stay busy during the years go ahead, go ahead.
Jacob Barr :
Oh, I was just going to say, yeah, you’re talking about being a pastor and the connection between crazy clinics and churches. And yeah, when it comes to that it would just be beautiful if more pastors would see how crazy clinics are. A way to reach, you know, part of that mission, which is to help single moms you know, part of that charter or that, you know, that mission of a of a of a church, of helping single moms, you know, helping, you know, those who have broken families like it’s such a beautiful way to connect with those to need help and healing. It just seems like a brilliant way for pastors to, yeah, essentially full, you know, better reach the mission that they have been given.
Gordon Douglas :
Yeah and the knees are huge. But again my church is small by many standards we will have 30 on a good Sunday because we’re kind of an inner city church in a in a tougher area. But we have one of those giant 3 foot baby bottles and that’s right up on the side. You know as people come in and out and yeah we regularly empty that’s my job i take the money and every month I get to give anywhere from 30 to 70$ to our pregnancy center and you know I guess our folks would go to our banquet as well and we go to the walk. We have a walk every fall where we do that and get sponsors but yeah it’s an expansion of your ministry not a threat and but again sadly many pastors or whatever their schools that they don’t know they. I would i wish I could make every pass to read Randy Alcorn’s book why pro-life Because we hear about, I mean, every political commercial i’m so sick of them right now. But in Pennsylvania, it’s a big issue but you know, this guy’s extreme. He believes in abortion is murder even in the cases of and they go through all this stuff but they don’t understand what abortion is they forget the science. They don’t know. Out of the hundred abortions that are done every day or give or take in Pennsylvania, how many of those are rape or incest? I mean, how many what are we doing? And Randy Alcorn’s book kind of outlines the top 10 questions that and gives reasonable answers but people never get beyond the rhetoric and the emotion and they just. I know somebody and I know somebody that the more you investigate it all the opposition that I don’t even want to mention their name and the government funding and the stuff that’s done and the testimonies of those who used to work there. It’s not just dad, it’s evil. It’s absolutely evil what goes on? And yet many of my high school friends and others on my Facebook site, they’re nice people and they really think they’re helping that it seems like they’re genuine, but the further you look into it, they never asked the tougher questions. I mean, even though I want to scream when I hear these political ads, it’s like what about the extreme when the baby is born and it survives abortion That what they they’ve never even heard of such a thing. They hold up their coat hangers but they don’t know how rare coat hangers were in the sixties and that more women die in safe and legal abortions than they did during the coat hanger days. It’s, you know, let’s look at the facts. And but again, people are emotional and they’re blinded. And so I try to be a voice of reason and I hope the comedy gives me A and what we’ve done in our home gives me a little bit of a platform where I can share some more of the truths. And ultimately, if you really care for the woman, if you really care, then let’s do what’s best for her and the baby. And I have said it for years and I want to make abortion unthinkable, not just illegal. And I am thrilled and overwhelmed i didn’t know I would see it in my lifetime i didn’t know. But I tell people now it’s just step one of 100 steps. Yeah, we it’s a big step. It’s a big step and I think as a pastor before God, as a country, there are such implications of changing that law. But on a practical level, I know in our area, in our hey, we’re seeing more work in our pregnancy center and the word is there’s more abortions now after Ruby weed because of the law, because of the state fights, because of this little pill you can get in the mail. Hey, there’s still a lot of work to be done, but that ruling is still huge. And now if the church would wake up and God would revive some hearts, I want to see this tsunami of revival sweep this country. That’s my that’s my passion.
Jacob Barr :
Wow yeah and I’m right there with you i thought Roe versus Wade would get overturned i just didn’t think I would be alive to see it i thought my children would get to see it i didn’t. It happened so much quicker than I would have. I didn’t. I couldn’t imagine it happening as quickly as it did. It was you know i thought the you know trying to get more justices on the Supreme Court that would look at it with yeah with just an amazing you know essentially getting people to look at it fairly i just I thought it was going to take a long time and I and I just didn’t see how it was going to get there. But the same time I felt like we yeah we it’s still worthwhile to keep you know pushing and fighting and working to the result that it would come but it just I didn’t think it would it would come this quickly it was just it’s amazing and I think you’re helping build that culture of life by you know by using positive ideas and humor and creative jokes i mean that is contributing towards a culture of life. You know when it comes to just being kind to one another and part of being kind I think is the laugh of somebody and to enjoy a time i think that reflects, yeah, movement in that direction, you know?
Gordon Douglas :
I was asked the other day by a newscaster I happened to run into the airport, one of the main anchors in Philadelphia, news that I went over and introduced myself. So he said, what’s your stick? I said, well, if there’s a theme for my comedy, it’s nobody ever told me, you know Rodney Dangerfield Field was a guy that never got any respect jack Benny from my era was the cheap guy but in me it was nobody ever told me I wish I knew about dating i wish I knew about marriage i wish I knew about diapers whatever it is, that’s what leads to the comedy so all the humor is pointed at me, but it’s around some important subjects and that is what my book is about i’ve just got to say, I just looking around here i know our times get really short. But yeah, I wrote a book dorian Coat. Yeah, Grow Spurts and Growing Pains and at the bottom, things I Wish I knew. That’s nobody ever told me. And I think the more people know, the better it is. And the humor is like, hey, I’ve made mistakes. My title is Growth Spurts and Growing Pains, The Struggles of a Skinny Stud Muffet. So it’s a it’s a comedy biography, but there are growth spurts there are things that I did in my life that just helped me grow, get closer to God, brought Lovejoy and peace to my life, helped turn things around. And then, sadly, I’ve made a lot of mistakes. And that’s the phrase growing pains. There’s things I’ve done that have hurt me or hurt others that I want my kids to avoid. And there’s a lot of warnings in my book, as well as in scripture. Yeah, about all kinds of subjects. And, you know, it’s just, that’s it that’s where it is so there. There’s things that I wish I do. And I, my wife and I, we still look back we just celebrated our forty third anniversary and we had no idea, you know, when a week or two before we said I do and exchanged our rings and vows, we were told we couldn’t have kids. I was devastated and because I always, God, did something amazing for me because I was the angry, hurting kid, I used comedy to cover my pain. And there’s a lot about that in my book and I share a little bit of that when I’m at the at the banquets because there is a quote that I use often it’s in it’s in Randy Alcorn’s book in my book it’s on page 76 on the right side 3 lines down. I have that kind of mind i just remember that I don’t know my kids names but he said 83 of this it was a specific study but 83 % of the women who had abortions said they would have kept their babies chosen life If and I was paused if what And the rest of the quote is if one person would have given them hope and the stat said he goes one after that how many are pressured in the decision misinformed, rushed by family, by parents, by boyfriends. It’s not a simple easy choice. And those who have made it that many the ones that I see every week have many regrets. And so it’s all about giving hope but that’s really what we’re trying to do is get that message of hope out there. And now I know the government’s making it harder in our state. The other stuff you have to put on websites now and you have to have words and you have to do this and for all these people who say they’re pro-choice why are they trying to shut down they’re literally trying to shut down our pregnancy clinic. And it’s like where’s the choice in that where’s and oh God, it is it is frustrating. But i go back again you’re so young a bit bob Hope. Did you know Bob Hope you know Bob Hope is the comedian. I do, because many people don’t. But you may not know that for 41 straight years he went overseas to entertain the troops at Christmas for 41 straight years. And I’ve read his by all the three. His biography is titled Don’t Shoot. It’s Only Me. It’s a great title, but it goes through his because he was under gunfire he was Jeep through minefields he was he wouldn’t just do a nice show on a big battleship in and they say he went right out there with people and I actually wrote him a letter back in the seventies and I got a six page letter back from NBC studios. So he’s a hero. My style of comedy is different, but I kind of consider myself the Bob Hope to the troops in the pregnancy battle. I want to encourage him i want to give him a little R and R and i want to get them ready to go back out there and fight the good fight and hopefully share some information that because I get to pick from different place Hey do you know what they did here or do you know what they did there. Oh I got a great idea because I learned at Heartbeat and Karinet and you’re coming up on Alliance for Life. I had the honor of being the keynote speaker there last year and I did a workshop but what a what a great event that was out in the Ozarks ozarks by the lakes beautiful setting and but you’ll learn. You’ll learn everywhere you go and that’s yeah, I’m like a little beast spreading some pollen and hey let’s share these teachings. Cause like pastors of a small church when you go to these conferences it is so invigorating to be around 500 to a thousand people ’cause you’re oh I thought I was the only one but I was the only one in this battle i was the only one struggling i was the only one who’s only open three days a week And yeah, and Satan just lies. So I love to share that and I do that with my newsletter as well, the little highlights, just to keep people going. And can you tell I love what I do. It’s like it’s fun.
Jacob Barr :
Oh, I definitely tell you love what you do. Would you would you share i was going to ask you to share some encouraging words then you wouldn’t you wouldn’t do this beautiful story of encouragement and so i sort of feel like, no, I just feel like you really said a lot that people are really going to enjoy and this is, I’m just excited to be able to share this with executive directors and I. And honestly, I guess that there’s one thing I can say. I think you mentioned before that you’ve been to many states across the US and I think the ones that you want 41 OK, well, I know I think one of those nine that you haven’t been to yet is Hawaii so I’m hoping that, yeah, Pearson Place will bring you to Hawaii or an event. I’m open. I asked them if they would so let’s see if that helps because then you wanted to go to Hawaii as part of one of your future events i think that’d be great.
Gordon Douglas :
Yeah and I got a couple leads in Alaska i’ve been to Alaska and I got a couple leads up there right now. So I’m trying to put together a few because it’s so far to fly. I don’t want to go search. I should say I don’t want to go for just one, but if I’m there, let’s put together three or four there’s why there’s in Alaska, we don’t even think about that.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, we work, I think we work with one and I think there’s probably about 3 or maybe more than three but yeah, for such a large mass of land there’s not there’s not there’s not a lot there but there’s a couple in there and but anyways I guess would you mind maybe just praying, you know trying to you know pray for the Pacey clinics and their and the directors is and just imagine that they’re on their daily commute and they’re listening to this and they might join us in prayer and i would just like to you know help them be encouraged and to. Yeah for God to. Yeah for God to encourage them and bless them and would you maybe. Yeah wrap up our podcast with an encouraging prayer toward, you know towards the work that they do of essentially helping be that one person who is talking to an abortion vulnerable client and helping her make that change and you know, helping her choose life. And by being that person, I would, I think that would be brilliant for us to wrap up with that kind of mindset.
Gordon Douglas :
Yeah if there’s any secret to my success, I have a prayer team of 32 people. And in every event that I do I send out their goal and the name of the center. And boy, it’s great to be covered it and I I’m the area coordinator for the National Day of Prayer so I love prayer so let’s do it. Father in heaven thank you thank you. Thank you are the God of life. You’re the God who gives joy, you said at the birth of your son and I bring you glad tidings of great joy. So for these weary workers in the pregnancy center, for those who feel like quitting, for those who feel and they are out, manned, out funded, out strategized in some ways, Lord, we come to you for wisdom. Pour out your wisdom along with your joy for these centers, may they see some fruit even this week. May they connect with new ideas, fresh ideas on how to get word out supernaturally i pray your angels would be about them as they travel and around their centers, as my friends would say, the north-south east, West, above and below i pray your angels will be stationed during this time when many are being threatened and vandalized. That you would supernaturally intervene. And through what Jacob does And these websites, oh Lord, I pray your word would get out creatively that you by your spirit would draw women across these websites that they would call the numbers, that they would arrange visits, that they would come and see there are choices besides abortion, that they would receive hope and encouragement and information about their lives, their baby, their future, the consequences of decisions. And Lord that through this, that many more would be saved. It’s so I say it’s so often i don’t want it to be cliche, but Lord, you took a couple loaves and fishes and touched multitudes. So these few minutes that we spent together, take them and use them and get this word out in ways that we can’t even fathom exceedingly abundantly above what we can ask, think, or even imagine. For your glory, Lord, we pray. We ask it in the name above every name, your Son, the Lord Jesus christ amen.
Jacob Barr :
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