GodTube offers wildly popular alternative to YouTube
Pastor Dale Morgan
GodTube offers wildly popular alternative to YouTube*
CEO Chris Wyatt created GodTube.com, a video-sharing site with Christian
content that maintains more than 150,000 registered users with active
profiles. Wyatt says he came up with the idea for GodTube after reading
a survey about falling church attendance.
By Heather Donckels, Religion News Service
In the late '90s, television producer Chris Wyatt helped start
Communities.com, the world's first social networking website. The site
exploded into the Web's largest pre-MySpace network.
Now, less than a decade later, Wyatt runs GodTube.com, which was rated
the fastest-growing online site when it launched in August. Wyatt says
the site aims to "help the church get people back into the pews."
Wyatt started GodTube.com, a Christian video-sharing and
social-networking site, and is now the CEO of a company that employs
about 20 people and has a distinctly Christian outlook.
"We're a traditional Christian site," said Wyatt, a 38-year-old student
at Dallas Theological Seminary. "Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior,
period."
According to comScore Inc., which tracks the growth of websites, GodTube
grew nearly 1,000% in its first month, and had 1.6 million unique
visitors every month. There are currently more than 38,000 videos on
GodTube.
Wyatt came up with the idea for GodTube after reading a survey about
falling church attendance. And while churches can upload video-sermons
to the website, Wyatt insists that Christians still need to attend an
actual church.
"GodTube is by no means a substitute or alternative for church," he
said. "We're here to help the church."
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.
Though GodTube has dominated the press in past months, the folks at
JewTube and IslamicTube seem to have a positive outlook on the Internet
giant. "It's nice to have various religious sites so that people can go
and learn about God, understand the differences in religion, and
appreciate one another's belief," Ayman said.
Kossen called his opinion of GodTube "very positive."
"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."
In spite of its smashing success, not everyone has such a rosy view of
GodTube.
Dan Smith, pastor of Momentum Christian Church in Valley View, Ohio,
created the video "Baby Got Book," which GodTube used to launch their
site. Though the spoof on the rap song Baby Got Back has been viewed
more than 603,000 times on GodTube, Smith wonders how effective the site
will be in reaching non-Christians.
"Most Christians want to reach un-churched people," Smith said, "but you
have to be really smart about where you reach un-churched people at."
Tim Ellsworth, the director of media relations at Union University in
Jackson, Tenn., has his doubts, too. Though he thinks GodTube can have a
positive impact on believers, he thinks it's yet another example of
American Christians copying elements of pop culture — from Christian
breath mints and energy drinks to a Christian version of American Idol.
"It's comfortable and convenient for us to surround ourselves with
Christian versions of everything rather than to interact with the
broader culture," Ellsworth said.
Ellsworth would love to see a larger Christian presence on YouTube,
because there the videos would have a better chance of being viewed by
non-Christians. He thinks Christians' tendency to withdraw from the
world reflects badly on them.
"It indicates to ... non-believers that we don't care as much about them
... whenever we try to make Christian copies of everything," he said.
Nevertheless, Wyatt sees GodTube as his ministry, a way "to bring as
many people to Christ ... as possible." He doesn't think he is the
reason for the site's success. Rather, it's the result of "God in GodTube."
"I'm not really the CEO," Wyatt said. "I feel like I'm the CEO's man on
the ground."