Preachers Taking to New Pulpit: The Internet By Stephanie Schorow
Boston Herald
03/17/05 5:00 AM PT
Jumping on the podcasting bandwagon are preachers and just plain folks with faith-based shows from various perspectives -- Jewish, Catholic, Unitarian, Tibetan Buddhism and paganism. There's even a "PsalmCast podcast."
That old-time religion has met that new technology.
In something dubbed "Godcasting," spiritual pundits are spreading the good word via audio shows downloaded from the Internet to iPods or portable MP3 players.
"I think this is huge," said Rick Wezowicz, online streaming manager for WGBH in Boston. He began producing the podcast ICM Raw, featuring independent Christian music, in November for www.godcast.org. "It's a new medium for distributing a message."
Jumping on Bandwagon
Podcasting is a hot trend in the wired world. At podcastingnews.com, podcastalley.com and ipodder.org, you can download audio shows on everything from rare '60s music to cooking to sports.
Jumping on the podcasting bandwagon are preachers and just plain folks with faith-based shows from various perspectives -- Jewish, Catholic, Unitarian, Tibetan Buddhism and paganism. There's even a "PsalmCast podcast."
"Based on the number of religious-themed programs being distributed ... it looks like Godcasting may be the podcast's first killer app," says PodcastingNews.
Craig Patchette, a Riverside, Calif., Christian churchgoer, launched the GodCast Network at www.godcast.org last fall; he produces four religious podcasts, including one with his 8-year-old daughter, Rachel.
Listening Opportunity
"It offers the person who may be curious about religion -- but not curious to go and attend a physical church -- an opportunity to listen to a message," he said.
Though John Berthrong, associate dean of Boston University's School of Theology, worries that Godcasting takes community out of churchgoing, he noted that religion usually takes to new technology like "a duck to water."