Higher Power Online: "GodTube"
Holy Internet!
Move over, GodTube -- now, there's GodTube.
The videos site has been booming since its creation in August, offering videos geared to Christians.
The video-sharing and social-networking site is one of the fastest-growing ones on the Web.
GodTube boasts more than 38,000 videos, from a spoof of Sir Mix A Lot's "Baby Got Back" titled "Baby Got Book," to parodies of ever-familiar Geico commercials, to a little girl reciting Psalm 23.
Chris Wyatt, GodTube's founder and CEO, pointed out to co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez on The Early Show Wednesday that Newsweek has dubbed the site "the Christian answer to YouTube." He calls it a "family-friendly answer to FaceBook" serving up "Christianity on-demand, 24/7."
Wyatt, a former television producer who only recently began to practice Christianity seriously, says he's simply trying to spread the word of God as Christians see Him, via the videos.
Everything submitted to GodTube, he says, is reviewed by Christian editors before it's posted. Blasphemy and sex jokes are screened out, along with racism, anti-Semitism, and general rudeness.
"Every single minute of every video is reviewed before it's posted, as are the photographs as well as comments," Wyatt told Rodriguez. "It's family-friendly and really kid-safe."
Not only can people share videos, he says, they can "join our social network that a quarter of a million people have already joined."
Why the need for GodTube?
"Certainly" Wyatt responded, "to discuss biblical themes, you need to do it in a context that really relates to that. While YouTube is a great site, certainly there's content that some people might consider objectionable. We really needed a non-threatening forum to express our religious views. "
Why not just post the videos on YouTube to reach non-believers, one of Wyatt's stated goals?
"We receive thousands of e-mails each week from people thanking us because there is a family-friendly, clean site that they can discuss these issues in," Wyatt replied.
He says he agrees with crtics who say GodTube is no substitute for going to church but, "It's a precursor to that. I read an Internet survey a few years ago that said about half the people would be going to church in a few years, and this is a way to encourage people to get back into church."
The Early Show broadcast snippets of a handful of the videos on GodTube:
"Baby Got Book" music video: a hilarious spoof of Sir Mix A Lot's song and music video "Baby Got Back." "Baby Got Book" refers to the Bible and, in the video, a Christian rapper sings about it to the tune of "Baby Got Back." It was created by Dan Smith while he was working at New Life Christian Church in Centreville, Va.
Little Girl Reading Psalm 23: the psalm as only a child can tell it. A four-year-old recites it off the top of her head. The video's been viewed more than 5 million times, according to Wyatt.
"Godco" Geico TV Evangelical spoof video: in one parody of GEICO commercials, a Christian woman and TV Evangelical sit side-by-side and a narrator announces, "Julie Raby is a real Godco believer, not a paid evangelist, so to help her share her faith, we hired a professional evangelist."
GEICO Cavemen spoof video: another parody of GEICO ads, using a caveman talking about Creation and God.
The Religion News Service cites comScore Inc., which tracks the growth of Web sites, as saying GodTube grew nearly 1,000 percent in its first month and had 1.6 million unique visitors every month.
According to the news service, "Christians aren't the only ones using the Internet to share their faith. For Jews, there's JewTube.com, and for Muslims, IslamicTube.net.
"Though the two sites are considerably smaller -- JewTube gets about 175,000 visitors per month and IslamicTube 23,000 -- the two sites are similar to GodTube in their mission to promote their individual faiths and surrounding cultures.
"Jeremy Kossen began JewTube last June after noticing a worrisome amount of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel content on websites like YouTube. That inspired him to begin a website for 'Jewish-oriented videos ... where we didn't allow comments that were racist in nature.'
"Kossen says the mission of JewTube is not to convert people, but to 'promote ... Jewish culture.' It also includes informational videos for non-Jews wanting to learn more about the Jewish faith.
"IslamicTube officially launched in April to create a clean environment in which to promote to the Muslim faith.
" 'We noticed Islamic videos ... became a huge hit on YouTube and felt we could help extend ... the true message of Islam," said Abu Ayman, a spokesperson for the site."
Kossen praised GodTube to the news service, saying, "Go to YouTube and type 'Jewish' or 'Israel,'" he said. "Tell me what you find. Eighty percent of it is anti-Semitic. Now go to GodTube and type the same thing. What do you get? Ninety-nine percent pro-Israel and pro-Jewish."