5 Best YouTube Channels for Your Mind | Steve Cioccolanti’s Review

Believe it or not, I used to promote other Christian youtube channels but copped criticism for promoting other Christians! There was always somebody who disliked a channel I enjoyed, or the Christian channel owner themselves wrongly thought that they were being ripped off. Instead of seeing that they were getting free advertising from me to over 100K of my subscribers, they assumed I was using their channel in some way for my own benefit. I was not.

So I learned 2 valuable lessons: 1) the least critical people have the right heart to make the best YouTube channels and 2) it’s easier to plug secular, even semi-Christian channels than full-blown Christian ones. As Jesus lamented, “And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.” (Luke 16:18)

If Jesus could commend the unjust “practical thinker”, I have it on authority that I should commend some clear-thinking channels even if they may not be the most overtly Christian, soft-sounding or smooth-talking.

As a successful YouTube creator, I believe a great YouTube channel cannot be achieved by merely having the right mic, editing software, studio set up, amazing guests, etc. A great YouTube channel has to have the right spirit. 

This means great creators create, not criticize. Great creators focus on what they do best, then a good kind of spirit comes through the screen. Therefore I have found that the best YouTube channels tend to be open-minded about God and the Bible, or feature Christians often, because it is a given that genuine Christians do not troll, flame or make ad hominem attacks. Real Christians stick to the point and elevate ideas rather than put down their opponents. Love and forgiveness, that kind of thing.

Five of the best “real news” channels on YouTube, in my humble estimation, are:

1. Steve Cioccolanti & Discover Ministries

   It is the only one of the five that is unapologetically Christian and quote the Bible regularly. Of course I may be a little biased. About 120,000 watchers have found our Christian prophetic content unique and engaging enough to sub and keep coming back. The “Donald Trump Prophecy” video was one of the most watched Christian videos about Trump during the US President election, garnering over 1.2 million views before Election Day November 8, 2016. We are based in Australia, but are unafraid to tackle international and controversial issues from a Christian viewpoint. We are church without borders and without boredom. Our motto is “straight up!” because our reporting is not meandering through political correctness nor obstructed by jargons and clichés, and because the truth spoken in love will lift you up. Seeing the truth changes the direction you go. Our hope is you will go straight up when the Lord comes.

2. PragerU

   Named after its founder Dennis Prager, an American radio talk show host. With 770K subs, PragerU is like TED Talk to the tenth power without left-slanting political agenda. Their motto is “Big Ideas, Short Videos.” Gathering some of the world’s best thinkers and distilling their best ideas into typically 5-minute long videos, they bring clarity on life’s biggest and most interesting topics. They are pro-Christian and pro-liberty.

3. The Alex Jones Channel

   With 2 million subs, and 1.2 Billion views (yes, that’s with a big, bold capital “B”), Alex Jones and his team is a media force to be reckoned with. The corporate media hate him. Australian news hates him. At first I found Alex Jone a bit gruff and bombastic, so why would I as a Christian pastor recommend him? As I got used to his style and heard the others in his team like David Knight, Jakari Jackson, Lee Ann McAdoo, and Paul Joseph Watson, I realized their heart was not for conspiracy, but for fearless truth, something that is gone from commercial journalism. Time has proven many of Alex’s conspiracies to be true. The globalist (NWO) agenda is real. As a Christian, we believe the Bible reveals to us many inside-jobs hidden from public eyes: the first was Satan’s conspiracy to dethrone God by pulling one-third of the angels to his side (that failed, but first it had to be exposed); the most wicked was the Pharisees’ conspiracy with Judas and Pilate to condemn the most innocent man who ever lived, Jesus Christ of Nazareth (that also failed after Jesus rose from the dead). Respectfully speaking, Alex appears to be a backslidden Christian, often jaded by big American churches.

   Yet I have never heard Alex speak badly of the Lord Jesus. The fear of God is still on him. As a pastor I understand the other side: most American pastors are afraid to death of losing their tax exempt status by opposing a politician and theoretically violating the unfair “Johnson Amendment.” As far as I know, no pastor has been persecuted under this amendment, but the mere threat seems to be chilling enough. President Donald Trump realized this is in effect a gag order on religious liberty and promised to “destroy the Johnson Amendment.” If that were to happen, freedom-loving pastors will come out of the woodworks, but that may be too little too late for Alex Jones. He’s been on the frontline of the spiritual battle, while many pastors hide comfortably behind mega pulpits. Alex and I share the same love for the truth, and we happen to be the same age.

4. Liberty Pen

   Liberty Pen is a collection of videos, some of them classic, advocating the moral superiority of liberty, laissez-faire economics and libertarian politics. Christians need a political model that they can see, read, watch, listen to and understand. The Biblical model is clearly libertarian, but since so few pastors are educated in both the Bible and economics, some exposure to the libertarian viewpoint will enhance a Christian’s perspective of the Bible. God’s eternal message is not merely saving sinners from hell, it’s called the Gospel of the Kingdom, or in modern parlance the Gospel of Good Government. Therefore a Christian has not been fully converted until he or she understands what kind of government God wants us to be part of and contribute to.

5. Stefan Molyneux

   Stefan is a self-proclaimed atheist philosopher. He claims the largest philosophy show on earth. He may be right. He is meticulous and workaholic, some weeks churning out an hour long video every day. I found him logically consistent on nearly every topic except theology, then he switches and draws on his emotions and childhood experiences like the sophists he criticizes. In fact, I was fed up enough with his anti-God rants (which added nothing to his arguments) that I made a video challenge to him that remains unanswered:

   I don’t expect him to answer now because he has matured in his views. He speaks less against Christianity and has come to realize that true Christians are friends of liberty and libertarians. We are truly his friends in the common fight against tyranny, sophistry and Islamofacist terrorism. What I like about Stefan is that he is clear-headed on issues that are mostly muddied in Christian pulpits: government’s intrusion into family, feminism, communism, Islam, and the evils of the welfare state. If only he knew that the conclusions he arrived at are all in the Bible already; alas to our Christian shame, it would be hard for him to know so because few Christian leaders seem to have the courage to speak on these Biblical issues the way he does. So he needs us and we need him. And all of us need Jesus Christ!

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