Response to Jesus is my Facebook Friend

This is a response to Dan's post "Jesus is my Facebook Friend" which can be viewed at http://lambgd.blogspot.com/2011/04/jesus-is-my-facebook-friend.html

              I really liked Dan't article on Christians and the internet. I had no idea that there was something called "Godtube" or Christians only dating sites. Without going to the site, I would assume that Godtube would be a website some crazy Christian nut made in his basement, but it is actually surprisingly well done. There are even ads before videos similar to what happens on Youtube when you try and watch VEVO videos. Except these ads are for Christian music instead of Old Spice or GM (as soon as I write this an ad for Liberty University pops up on Godtube). While I'm on the subject of Christian music, I can see some parallels developing between the trend of Christian websites and Contemporary Christian Music (CCM). In Brian Schill's article, he describes the formation of the CCM genre as a way to stand out from the mainstream. However, because of the characteristics of the music industry (e.g. trying to become as popular as possible), there will be a point where CCM will be accepted into the mainstream, defeating its original purpose. I can see the same thing happening with Christian websites such as Godtube, which was created as an alternative (or the Other) to popular video sharing sites such as Youtube or Vimeo. At what point will these websites join into the internet mainstream? But at the same time, there is also a fundamental difference between the music industry and the internet, and that is the economics of the respective industries. It is much cheaper to maintain a domain of the web than a record company. Because of this, it is not necessary for websites increase visitors (although it might be better for them to do so). Therefore, a niche website such as Godtube may never become completely mainstream, just popular within the niche its designed for. And speaking of niches, here is a random video of Justin Bieber I found on Godtube.