We have Christian TV, Christian music, Christian bookstores, Christian clothing, Christian candy (i.e. ‘Testamints‘), and many other things that are often ridiculous and even offensive. American Christians continue to isolate themselves from those who supposedly need to hear our message. I’ve come across a couple of new examples recently that I was not aware existed.
A month or so ago I found something called ShoutLife which is, evidently, a “Christian Facebook.” Now, there’s also GodTube - the “Christian YouTube.” Part of it’s mission appears to be to provide a venue for Christians to post evangelistic video messages (where they’ll most likely be seen only by other Christians.) Aren’t the odds of your target audience viewing it much better on, I don’t know, maybe YouTube?
Whatever idea comes along, you can always count on someone to create a “Christian” (and often, lesser quality) version of it.
Well, most products we enjoy are “copies” of something else. There are thousands of styles of shoes, clothes, appliances, television stations, sitcoms…. So imitation is an easy way to brush something off as insignificant. There are a number of Christian myspace and youtube sites out there, some more, some less evangelical. I recently joined one called zigvid. It’s on the less (as in not) evangelical side. It’s got the youtube variety without the obsenities. And I honestly think that’s a good thing.
May 16, 2007
I’m not “brushing it off as insignificant” at all. The point was that we often seem to copy things so that we can further separate ourselves from “the world” (perhaps that’s not always the intent, but it is more often the result.) That’s very significant, and, in many cases, a bad idea.
May 16, 2007
Hilarious post, Greg. I agree with you, that we continue to separate ourselves from the world. And I agree that’s a very bad thing. Your comment about the target audience cracks me up.
May 16, 2007