#32: Jim Harbaugh Talks PRO-LIFE & Where He’s Coaching Next [CW Podcast] - Audio

[Music] [Applause] [Music] hello and welcome to culture watch a podcast of speaking for him my name is Andrew gomon and I am your host each and every Monday as we look at current events and news items from a Biblical perspective because as you know we are not called to be of the world but we are called to live in it and so it is incumbent upon us to have a proper response and a ready answer for others in response to the things that go on around us and so that is why I am so privileged to come to you each week with this podcast over the last 6 months uh it's been a real blessing uh to have people listening and I just want to express my appreciation to each and every one of you if you have any feedback on this show please make sure that you contact me with the contact information that will roll at the end of this time together I would really appreciate hearing from you if there's any stories that you think I should cover or discuss or if there's any perspectives on the stories that I do share that you think I would benefit from please please hit me up I would really appreciate it and as always if you really want to help the show please let other people know about it and share a rating and review on Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts let's get started with news from the week of January 29th [Music] well we're going to start out this broadcast by bringing you a clip from the March for Life where National Championship winning head coach of Michigan Jim Harbaugh gave his testimony of sorts of not only his stand for life but also a Revival that broke out on the team this special season oh well first off congrat on The Natty Championship how do it feel and what you been doing ever since that oh it's been incredible um just back to work you know getting ready for uh getting ready for the next season there's there's a passing of the torch that's that's uh that's awesome and just incredible to be here today and see the testimony of of so many that are here well and then also too you were telling me 70 players got baptized on your team this season you know what led to kind of like that mini Revival inside the Wolverine Rock locker room here you know it's it's our players uh and their parents our coaches our staff it's a it's it's a there's a there's a spiritual Mission you know to our team and uh yeah I'm inspired by them you know you see guys like Blake km and so many others but uh yeah it's inspirational the the young players on our team are uh are Inc incredible examples yeah I mean you're so bold in the pro- Life fight too we're here for the March for Life why are you so bold and then why do you feel like it's kind of taboo to talk about this we can talk about everything on God Green Earth in college sports and pro sports but a lot of people don't touch the pro-life issue why is that just have the courage to let The Unborn be born I I and uh the testimony of of of so many here of yourself uh you know just so so thankful and grateful for that this is a great day for a March it's a great day for the sanctity of life and it's a it's football weather so let's go let's go and then uh finally to um how is the uh the job search going I know you can't break it everything down but I'm I'm a Falcons fan so obviously I'm rooting for you and you got a lot of different places that are searching you out but you know what kind of keeps you grounded while you got a lot of people wanting you up at the top in the NFL while still coming off a great National Championship with Michigan well I just just take I just take the counsel from from God and the Holy Spirit and uh Mr Jack Harbaugh my dad and my wife Sarah uh but you know just just taking the advice just living living one day at a time you know uh one day at a time one game at a time one play at a time and then final two questions for you one pro-life question one football question pro-life question um you know why do you believe that every single baby has value it's the it's the sanctity of Life uh I mean there's there's no rights without the right to be born and then finally too how do you think uh your brothers no other rights matter if you don't have the right to be born final question how do you think your brother's going to do tomorrow oh I uh he's going to do great he's going to do great the the got a score prediction the whole the whole family will be there supporting my brother and uh I think great things are going to happen score prediction I I don't have a score predic enough for you Raven more than the other team by one point by one point it'll be perfect thank you very much thank you so I have been a Jim Harbaugh fan from a very young age I used to watch him play for the Chicago Bears and then more prevalently to my memory playing for the Indianapolis Colts and getting them very close to the Super Bowl I think they may have either gone to the AFC Championship and just barely lost or just barely lost the opportunity to go to the AFC Championship um and he earned a nickname as Captain comeback and one of the things that he would always do at the end of every game win or lose is give glory to his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and for a while that seemed to go away from when I would hear him speak publicly uh but it seems that he has experienced a personal Revival uh because that was definitely something that came out a lot this season his commitment to Jesus Christ and his desire to see his players be not just good players but good men if you watch the post game of almost every game you would see Jim Harbaugh when he was talked to he always deflected the praise to his players and he always encouraged them to speak to the media and people like uh Blake Quorum and Zach zenter and Donovan Edwards have taken bold stands for the Lord Jesus this season and as you heard it's actually part of a bigger thing that happened in Michigan with 70 members of The 100 member Wolverines football team taking a stand for Christ through baptism and so that's an encouraging thing to come out of Ann Arbor and as a Michigan fan it just bolsters my uh admiration for this coaching staff and for this team and I'm so thrilled that we finished with a national championship and I can say that since this interview happened uh Jim Harbaugh has accepted a position as the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers so that makes the Los Angeles Charters automatically my second favorite team to the Detroit Lions so I'm really hoping that Jim has success uh he's been a successful NFL coach before he actually went to the Super Bowl against his own brother John Harbaugh who's the coach of the Baltimore Ravens they will be facing each other next season as part of the regular season so that will be an intriguing matchup and I'm just wishing Jim the best um he seems to have his head on straight and really prioritize family and you know it's one thing to to say that you're Pro lifee but some of the public stands and ridicule that Jim has gone through this year show me that it's real for him uh because he spoke at a crisis pregnancy uh banquet uh last fall and he was ridiculed for that some people even called for him to be fired from the University of Michigan uh for making that stand if you make any number of liberal stands that's okay but making a stand for life is somehow wrong so Jim I applaud you for uh taking a stand for life and I'll just make a note right here that we will be discussing uh the issue of the sanctity of human life this Wednesday on the regular podcast and I'm looking forward to that conversation with you all so please make sure that you're listening Wednesday for that but again I salute the Michigan Wolverines on their national championship and Jim on his opportunity to go to La and Coach the Chargers I hope that he is successful and even though I want the Lions to win every single time they hit the field I would love to see Jim get a Super Bowl title uh before he completely retires from football well from snowy Washington DC for the March for Life we go to Sunny but not so friendly California In-N-Out Burger will be closing its only Oakland location which has been open for nearly two decades the company citing crime and safety concerns is the reason why an opinion columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle isn't pleased by the move she tweeted quote remember in and- out is in some benevolent institution it's a fast food chain driven by profit gos if in-n-out's primary concern is the well-being of the communities it serves it wouldn't be leaving judge why me first I'm disgusted by this you know so you shouldn't worry about the number of employees that are assaulted and when they leave the new employees coming in who don't want to take the job potential employees because they don't want to get assaulted or you know the fact that it takes police longer to get there because the police have been defunded or 9911 isn't as fast as it used to be and you know you can't get employees who want to work late because everybody's getting beat up or their cars are broken into outside and you hope your insurance company will still Co cover you and this woman who was a former blogger who was a co-host of a podcast called the racist sandwich she wants she wants you to stay in business because she does I mean it's just stupid well that's why I went to you first uh Charlie this In-N-Out has been there for 20 years is actually part of the community and people's kids have worked there and then gone on to college and I'm just impressed by the amount of homework you did for this block she like C everything RAC sandwi glad I missed that part but you but then again you also sort of mopped up all the important points um no uh but no but this is this is like the definition of the actual definition of communism where you control the means of production and you say no you cannot go out of business e even though you're the same people not you but but these people these people out there they're the same people who have ushered in all of the misery with all of their crazy lunatic policies that make it uh have to close in the first place Greg do you like In-N-Out burger or what a burger trying to think of what a racist sandwich could be like that's what I want to know blmt a blmt well she talks about race gender in class in sandwiches she has a lot of time in her hands she does not go outside she's in a foot footsie pajamas holding a cat that's what her life is that's why she says you should keep it open because she doesn't go outside when you hear that another store is closing in Oakland you're always shocked that there's still remaining stores in Oakland that's like if you're going to open a store in Oakland that's like getting dressed for the Captain's Table at the Titanic it's common knowledge though this is Gavin nome's favorite family restaurant so this is a direct attack on laundry no no no for his family for his family cuz and also he would use the grease from the burger wrappers to shellack his hair so this is a big gut punch to Nome more so than the burgers themselves this has got to hurt Martha wellow I think everything's been said but um you know I would just say that it's a it's a it's the town's responsibility to encourage small business to thrive right and you do that by giving them incentives to stay open maybe they should be giving company's tax breaks in order to encourage them to be in Oakland and then they're going to have to provide police security and you know when people break in they're going to have to put them in jail it's pretty simple equation okay first of all struggling businesses are nothing new there are businesses all the time that are closing down or moving because they're not making the money they were making and they need to make a change there are so many places uh that are struggling to have workers My Brother Talks often about the fact that his retirement home trains people and then they leave just a couple weeks after that or maybe even right after the training and so his department at the kitchen uh goes through a lot of employees and goes from fully staffed to having shortfalls often because of the nature of how hard it is to keep people employed there so you add the normal problems that businesses in America are having uh at retaining employees to the insanity that is California politics when it comes to businesses and basically giving criminals a blank check to say you can do your criminal activities here and we're not going to bother you we're going to reduce the number of store security guards we're going to say that prosecutors don't have to prosecute you if if they you steal under ,000 worth of merchandise we're going to reduce police presence overall because we're defunding the police and then you're going to wonder why a company like in and out burger who has a commitment to Quality and who wants to have a safe environment for their employees and wants to have a place where people actually want to work wants to move out of the environment they're in it's really a heads scratcher to think about that I also think that a lot of times the difference between someone who is more conservative and someone who leans liberal is that the conservative will look at the Nuance of the situation the liberal just says this is a closing restaurant I like this restaurant it should stay open and that if the restaurant cared about their Community they would stay open and the conservative like myself is more likely to say well what are the factors the factors are it's getting more and more dangerous in the neighborhood where this In-N-Out Burger is it's getting harder to retain employees and it's not worth it to stay open in that location businesses are fleeing California by the truckload I mean think about the fact that the daily wire left uh California for Tennessee a few years ago and most of their personalities moved with the company and said we want to go to Nashville Tennessee where they're now based because it's a more familyfriendly environment and the reality is you can't be committed to non-family Friendly values and then expect families to want to stay where you are now the reason that I feel really bad about this situation is the only way for a state to get better is if it has good people involved in what's going on in the state so I'm not necessarily saying that everybody should bail on California I'm just saying that it makes all the practical sense in the world for a company like in an alberger who I believe is a Christian company to make a decision which is best for their company and for their employees and unless the politicians who are in charge of California want to take a look at reality and start amending their policies to be for the people and not just for what feels good or looks good they're going to continue to Hemorrhage they're going to continue to have people leave and they're going to have people continue to relocate in places that are more friendly to business and more friendly to families that's just the reality of the situation well this past week we heard the State of the State address from our governor Gretchen Whitmer Whitmer using her sixth State of the State address to tout her accomplishments of 2023 some of her words light-hearted even throwing in song references to send her message we got into the groove last year but great bands do not rest on their Laurels they make the next record better than the last one there's more to do and nothing is going to stop us now among her priorities Whitmer urged lawmakers to make schooling for all pre students and college-bound high school graduates in our next budget let's make the first two years of Community College in Michigan tuition free for every high school graduate Governor indicated a main problem for michig ganders right now cost and she considers housing the largest expense with affordability a top concern for younger adults in travor city school districts need housing for teachers who have nowhere else to live on the west side and in the up there just aren't enough homes for growing families and I know detroiters see higher rates when they resign so our response is simple build baby build let's go Governor avoided discussing the presidential race but did praise policies under the Biden Administration she also touched on inflation indicating it's not President Biden's fault no one likes paying six bucks for a box of cereal or more for an oil change than they did last year but I want to be upfront with you I cannot solve Global inflation alone no one person can not even a president if you meet someone who says they have a secret plan to fix inflation run the other way and don't forget about roads it's what Whitmer originally campaigned on Whitmer called on MDOT to authorize the final $700 million of her rebuilding Michigan Plan the final round of projects includes 94 along metro airport in Detroit 696 from Southfield through Warren and a bridge in Eerie Township the governor's address comes at a unique time with the State House evenly divided with 54 Democrats and 54 Republicans the Dems lost their house majority when two repres Representatives left their posts to assume the office of Mayor until then the Democrats had full control of the state government for the first time in 40 years the governor ended her address with something we can all cheer about encourage you to drive safe root for the Lions and have a good night let's go let me just first of all say that I did not feel like she said anything particularly egregious I know last year I was really uh mad when I got done watching the State of the State address and some of the same issues are issues that she brought up again so they're definitely her bwick the things that she wants to uh focus on and I disagree fundamentally with a lot of them uh I'm just going to bring up a couple things here uh first of all I want to bring up that she did emphasize once again uh the need to make prek available for everyone and I realize that this is given in the guise of better education for our children but I don't think a lot of people necessarily realize the full implications I feel like by making prek available for everyone that'll be the first step to then making it mandatory and I feel like the younger education gets on the state level especially as public education goes the more the state is telling parents you do not have the capability of teaching your children I've said this before and I'll say it again that if children went to school before they could walk parents would eventually be convinced that their child would not be able to walk without a teacher that sounds harsh but I truly believe that and I wish more parents would realize their need to be involved in the education of their children if you want to send your kids to Christian School if you want to send your kids to public school if you want to homeschool your children that is your purview that is your decision to make But please understand that you as the parent and not the state are the one that is responsible ultimately for the education of your children that's the first thing the second thing she mentioned was roads now they seem to be fixing the roads all the time so I don't know what actually the end game is and I feel like more than just getting out and fixing the roads we need a better plan for making the roads because it seems like roads don't hold up they need to be repaired on a regular basis and we need to find a better way to have them have more longevity every time we're turning around there asking for more money for roads now it seemed like she was just asking for M do to activate money that was already available I'm not 100% sure on that uh but it's definitely something that she continues to hammer and make it sound like she has the answers but again we need long-term Solutions and I hope that through this process people are thinking of long-term solutions for the roads and not shortterm it seems like for so many years there's been one tax after another for roads and yet they are a serious problem still within our state the third thing and one thing that really stuck out to me this time around for the State of the State was her call for free community college for every Michigan high school graduate and I'm sorry but I feel like that assumes a lot that assumes that every high school graduate is built for college and that assumes that people who get a free college education will take advantage of it in the best way I've told this story before that I knew a girl who was an American Indian and thus got a free college education and a free apartment from her tribe everything was paid for she proceeded to go to Michigan State University and she bombed her first semester or maybe even her first year I forget if it was just one semester or if it was both semesters but she bombed and why did she bomb she bombed because she wasn't paying the bill she had no personal sacrifice that she was making for this education and nothing catastrophic was going to happen to her if it failed so this idea that free education is just going to make everybody's life better is not 100% true and very well could have its own problems not to mention that with all this spending that Whitmer wants to do and and please understand me when I say that I understand that every politician wants to spend money whether they are a conservative or a liberal whether they are a Republican or a Democrat they all want to spend money but one of the things you need to do when you talk about spending money in an area is you need to figure out where that money is going to come from and that's something that never comes out in these discussions and then of course although she didn't harp on it she talked about the successes that her Administration had in securing greater rights for women's reproductive health I just love the fact and by love I mean very sarcastically love the fact that she talks about wanting population growth in Michigan while practically cheering and jumping up and down that my state kills babies better than your state that's essentially what she says over and over again that's one of her biggest Badges of honor is that Michigan is one of the most pro-abortion states in the nation despite the years and years of work that organizations like right to life of Michigan have done to preserve the sanctity of human life and why is it that people would want to come back to a state like Michigan when your biggest claim to fame is that that anyone can come here to kill their children that is ridiculous repulsive and disgusting to me and it is something that we should as a state be in prayer about we need to storm the Gates of Heaven and ask God to intervene for these little children who are being sacrificed on the altar of convenience and being shunned because they are inconvenient and we need to make abortion not just illegal but Unthinkable by the way that we live in our culture this is so important all right well I just have one more story to share and this one is kind of similar to the way I ended last week's show uh because I told you last week about Detroit Lions football Jared gof with the delivery 14 with a catch and the lions with an extra point can double up their lead with 622 to play Man Dan look he's dropping dimes Nicholls quarters Jared is dropping it all out the day beautiful path from number 16 Baker leans in there's the snap Blitz comes Mayfield back loads gross picked off by the Lions intercepted by the Lions intercepted by the Lions Derek barns Derek barns Derek barns oh baby 133 to go the Lions are Going to San Francisco DK bars with the interception oh baby stand up fordfield look at this woo look at this first career interception for Derek Barnes and how big is that yes man yes 55 dropping back into coverage reaching up making the grab oh baby it's beautiful lions will break the Huddle and go into Victory formation there's the snap gol takes a knee yes that clock is moving they're not stopping it they're not stopping it they are not stopping it hey Detroit you're going back to the NFC Championship Game we're going to San Francisco yes sir let's go baby let's go there's the knee and that's it yes oh Detroit two teams will meet out in the middle of the field to say job well done job better done on this night by your NFC North Champion Detroit Lions who are going to the NFC championship game where they will see San Francisco next week with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line so Dan Miller and Lis Brown on the call for the Detroit Lions radio network and the lions are facing the San Francisco 49ers for the NFC title and a trip to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl and I am very excited I think actually these teams match up very well the Lions have some weakness in their secondary which I hope is being addressed rest in practice this week and I'm just so proud of the team and how they've banded together and I feel like this team is much like the 2004 Detroit Pistons team that won the title they didn't have any real big Superstars they just had a bunch of guys that went to work and came away with the title and that was so exciting and now I am really excited to see the Detroit Lions legitimately have a chance at going to their first Super Bowl in franchise history ironically they were a very good team in the 50s they won three NFL titles I believe in the decade of the 50s and there's actually a book about those teams called when they were Kings and it's just so interesting to think about the Lions ever being dominant but there's actually also a whole display about that in the NFL Hall of Fame but now we're writing a new chapter for the Lions and I really hope that they come to play with San Francisco the last two games have had elements of being nail biters even though I believe the Lions have never trailed in either one of those games they've been tied but but I don't think they've ever trailed and I really think the NFC Championship will be more of the same I think it will come down to the final minutes and hopefully the Lions will prevail so that's all I have time for today on the culture watch podcast I hope you've enjoyed this show and as I said if you'll share it with your family and friends that would mean a whole lot to me as I continue on my quest to encourage the body of Christ and to equip them well to run the race and to continue on their journey of the Christian Life I hope that you have a wonderful week and that you keep serving the best of Masters thank you for listening to today's episode your host has been Andrew gomon founder of speaking for him for more information on today's show and to leave us comments and voicemails visit speaking forh him. blogspot.com you can find Andrews Ministry at speaking forhim.com that's speaking the number four hiim you can also interact with us at facebook.com/ speaking forhim and on Twitter @p speaking forhim and when you look for us on iTunes and Stitcher let us know what you think of the podcast by leaving a rating and review [Music]