Today though, are you aware of YouTube containing religion or religious themes? Today’s Time online magazine explores firing up your home video camcorder to present God and Christianity, or “religion” to the masses. While the article was very bland, the video featured along side the article drew my attention: Steve Silvia’s “The Catholic Church- Behold, I am with you all days!” is the featured video. [ view clip ]
I semi-watched and listened. The haunting monk-like chanting of the music can put you in a spiritual reflective mood, but I can’t say the text helps me to understand Catholicism. So I searched YouTube for 'religion'. First up in the queue?
“George Carlin – Religion is B***sh*t”. Obviously, not what I was seeking.
Next, I searched, ‘Presbyterian Church’. The top three results: “Coral Ridge” , “PCUSA Moderator Bruce Reyes- Chow’s Opening Speech” , and “Darrick Lawson’s Ordination service at Westminster Presbyterian Church”.
Then, ‘Episcopal Church’: “Processional Hymn 137”, “Lambeth: Rowan Williams Draws a Line”, “The Episcopal Church Honors Your Spiritual Journey”; and finally, rounding out the top five- “Who Are We?” (The Episcopal’s get one point for a doctrine video).
The Baptist’s on the otherhand had some big names in their top five: Documentary producer, Michael Moore and a guy named Barack O’Bama, to name a few.
And the Methodist’s: They’re number one at least had a cool song from the Eme Nkwa Ekwere Choir—part one.
It appears general searches on YouTube for videos about religion has a long way to climb before seriously bringing viewers to God. Right now, searches predominately focus on the lighter side of faith; poking fun at doctrine. A site is actually focued on Christian faith is known as GodTube. A GodTube serach doesn't bring up a site of that name but, tangle.com, serving as http://www.tangle.com/ an online Christian community.
All in all, I felt the Time article missed its mark and was a filler piece until I revisited the featured clip of the Catholic video on the YouTube site. Viewing it on YouTube, I see a different picture. In the right-handed column of the monitor screen, related videos appeared: “Why I became Catholic”, “Queen of Heaven”, “The Truth about Catholics”, “Why You Should Be Catholic”, “My Catholic Faith- Man Should Tremble”, and “Here I am Lord”…. Gee that’s a lot different than the protestant church results.
Okay, “Here Am Lord”- is one of my favorite hymns. How did this wind up on the Catholic page? Not on the Presbyterian page or the Methodist page or any other Protestant search word? Because… the video producer, Steve Silvia is ta-da--- CATHOLIC! Or he’s being paid by the Catholic church to produce very cool videos that are uploaded to YouTube and Steve Siliva has most likely tagged those videos to appear under a Catholic search group. Steve Silvia’s video, “The Catholic Church- Behold I am with you all days!” is the video featured in the Time article, an aha moment. Eight of the featured video clips on the Catholic page are produced by Steve Silvia. Guess those Catholics are pretty slick getting a guy to produce videos and uploading them for people to view in hopes it might spark some interest in learning more about the Catholic faith.
So fellow Protestants, are we behind in technology? Are we using all the multi-media sources out there to proclaim God’s word? The Catholics don’t own the streaming video market. They just saw the opportunity and jumped on board. Let me tell you friends, here’s a big example of why mainstream religion is struggling. When are we going to get over our fears and embrace this new stuff? If you can even call it new any more. And when we do venture out to be technologically creative, why do we think we have to create our own sites for “us”? GodTube was ecstatic this past August stating they had 4.5 million unique viewers. YouTube exceeded 100 million viewers in March 2009, with internet users watching 14.8 billion online videos. YouTube became the 4th most visited site on the web after it beat out Microsoft’s Live.com and MSN with 120 million viewers in August. Why do we feel we need to separate ourselves when talking about our faith? Why can’t God come with us on Facebook, on Twitter, on YouTube?
Faith-based subjects, spirituality and God are appearing in all these mediums. I know. I read it. It comforts me when I do see God and faith talk interspursed in my daily life. He slips in through the updates and groups and videos. God IS on YouTube, if you look. He may not be listed in the top 10 YouTube hits like “Drunkest Guy Ever Goes Back for One More" or “Hot Chicks with Guns”, but He’s there. Kind of like in real life, huh? Can YouTube find God? Not if we don't help put him there.
Got a minute? YouTube moments I think merit your time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpbyM8k7e2Q&feature=relatedChoir (Perpetuum Jazzile) creates a rainstorm with hands and
sings Toto song:
Composer John Williams tribute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk5_OSsawz4
God Is My Everything: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcPhwhgCywk
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