GodTube Offers Internet Alternative

Oct. 18, 2007 — -- On YouTube, the wildly popular video-sharing site, the most-watched video clips include David Letterman's public evisceration of Paris Hilton, music videos by Rihanna and Soulja Boy, and, of course, a young man's heartfelt plea to "leave Britney alone."

But YouTube's ocean of clips — some of them trivial, offensive or just bizarre — now find themselves competing with a Web site from a higher authority — GodTube.

GodTube, the Christian response to YouTube, is the fastest-growing Web site on the Internet, and the site's top videos reveal a community that couldn't be more different than YouTube's.

There are music videos, here, too: Christian music ranging from serious original content to parodies of popular rap songs.

Case in point -- a parody of Rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot's 1992 hit song, "Baby Got Back." GodTube user David Smith flipped the popular ode to the female posterior into a humorous send up of big Bibles, calling it "Baby Got Book."

"I like big bibles and I cannot lie
You Christian brothers can't deny
When a girls walks in with a KJB with a bookmark and proverbs you get stung,
got a name engraved so you know this girl is saved.

Looks like one of those large ones with plenty of space in the margins
Oh baby I want to read with ya cause your bible's got pictures
My minister tried to console me but that book you got makes me so holy."

And while music video parodies are commonplace on other video sharing sites, you'll also find content not likely to turn up on YouTube -- like one video, "A Letter from Hell" featuring a dramatic letter written by Josh, a fictitious dead high school student, to his best friend Zack. Josh scolds Zack for not sharing his personal relationship with Jesus and consequently being indirectly responsible for his ending up in Hell for eternity.

Chris Wyatt, a student at Dallas Theological Seminary, launched GodTube earlier this year after reading a study that forecast a 50 percent decline in the number of U.S. churchgoers by 2050. He decided to reach teenagers and young adults in their playing field — the Internet -- hoping to incite excitement for the church and ensure a following for the future.