More than eight in 10 people identify with a religious group, according to the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. An article in Forbes says that there are almost 8,000 dating sites in the world, with dozens of them catering to a specific religion. Today, we’re going to talk about when online dating and religion collide.
We often get people asking us if eharmony is religious. If you Google “Christian dating sites,” it’s easy to see why. While the answer to the question “Is eharmony religious?” is simple, it does have some moving parts to it, so we’re going to break it down for you.
No, eharmony Isn’t Technically a Religious Dating Site
When you sign up for eharmony, you’ll complete the well-known 29 Dimensions of Compatibility questionnaire, which asks about your religious beliefs or spirituality. Your choices include Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, spiritual but not religious, neither religious nor spiritual, or no preference. You can also say how much this matters to you, from not important to very important, and choose specific denominations for your matches.
For more information about what eharmony asks for during the signup process, check out this article. You can see more about eharmony’s demographics and user base, as well as its matching system and pricing, below:
- Relationships: Casual Dates, Deep Relationships
- Match System: Personality test suggests matches
- Our Experts Say: “eharmony's compatibility questions do the sorting up front, so matches arrive based on personality rather than photos.” Our Review »
- Browse Free: View Photos Now
As one of the biggest dating sites, eharmony has more than 33 million users around the world. That includes people from many religions, plus a wide range of ages, races, educational backgrounds, and appearances. The site also draws more than 4.1 million monthly visitors from all walks of life. What brings them together is a shared interest in finding a serious relationship.
It Was Co-Founded By Christian Theologian Dr. Neil Clark Warren
While eharmony isn’t a Christian dating site, nor a religious dating site, it was founded on traditional Christian beliefs. Co-Founder Dr. Neil Clark Warren is a prominent Christian theologian, and he helped create the site and its matchmaking system back in 2000.
Neil also has a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and is a former dean and psychologist at the Graduate School of Psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary.
During the early years of eharmony, Neil was close with James Dobson, Founder of Focus on the Family, an American Christian conservative organization that promotes views such as abstinence-only sex ed, creationism, school prayer, and traditional gender roles. This is another reason people often think eharmony is a religious dating site.
However, Neil eventually cut ties with the evangelical Christian author and psychologist, likely because he wanted the brand to connect with a broader audience.
Gay Men and Lesbian Women Can Join eharmony, But They May Like Compatible Partners Better
Another reason eharmony is viewed as religious is the fact that gay men and lesbian women couldn’t sign up for the site for many years. Until recently, if you identified yourself as a woman, you’d be automatically given men as your preferred gender, and vice versa. As a result, eharmony has faced many lawsuits that stated gay and lesbian singles were being discriminated against.
“We’ve suffered from the contentiousness of that topic,” Neil told CNN. “We didn’t want to pretend to be experts on gay and lesbian couples. We’re not anti-gay at all… it’s a different match.”
However, in 2019, eharmony did the right thing, became more inclusive, and began allowing same-sex matches.
Even with its conservative reputation, eharmony has never been anti-gay. Instead, the company has tried to support the LGBTQ+ community in its own way.
In 2009, eHarmony decided to reach out to the gay community by launching Compatible Partners, which is specifically for gay and lesbian daters. The signup, questionnaire, matching, and communication processes are all the same, and the site gets more than 370,000 visitors a month and is responsible for “a number of same-sex marriages,” as Neil puts it. See more of Compatible Partners’ success stories here.
eharmony: A Mainstream Dating Site With Religious Influences
Christianity is a fundamental part of eharmony and its history, but it’s not a 100% Christian dating site. Singles with all kinds of religious and spiritual beliefs (or lack thereof) are more than welcome to join and search for a date or partner. Since the site does all the matching for you based on your individual criteria, you’ll only receive religious matches if that’s what you want. If it’s not, then you won’t. Everything is up to you!
