Article 2: “GodTube Offers Wildly Popular Alternative to YouTube”

After noticing the amazing popularity of the secular video sharing site YouTube, Christians decided that making a similar site for Christian videos may actually be a smart idea.  YouTube is visited millions of times a day; however the content found on the site is not always a positive reflection of religious groups.  Realizing this, GodTube was created by a seminary student and it has become quite popular since the site’s launch.  They boast a 1.6 million unique visitor count each month, and it really seems to be a great alternative video source for Christians.  Following GodTube’s lead, Jewish groups and Islam groups have also created video sharing sites specific to their religion.  Although they are growing slower than GodTube, spokespeople from both sites are pleased with GodTube’s success.  Even though their own beliefs are not specifically reflected, GodTube promotes videos with positive messages and does not allow discriminatory videos to be uploaded.   

Ultimately it is a site that others have found helpful because of its positive portrayal of religion, and the hope of the creator is that it will bring people back to church.  The specific content of the videos ranges from tasteful humor to sermons that have been recorded in churches, which allows site visitors to access videos that can encourage their faith to grow.  There has also been some criticism of GodTube, though, claiming that it is just another company following the popularity of secular successes and copying them in a Christian way.  Since this statement is essentially true, it is interesting to think about its implications.  Isn’t it bad that Christians are just copying secular ideas in a Christian way?  Why do Christians always need to sponge the popularity from mainstream things?  Maybe they are just a little late in the game and slower to adopt to technology; however, I think that by using the popularity of things like YouTube, which is known to be very secular, is a great way to lose credibility for Christian sites.  Overall, GodTube clearly is a great concept and alternative to secular websites, but I am not sure that it will be driving Christians back to church or attracting people who are not religious.

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