Online dating agencies have been around for over a decade now. It takes some ingenuity to convince potential customers that your company stands out against the competition and is the only choice for their quest. American entrepreneurs know no limits when it comes to money making ideas. The same can be said for religious leaders, founders of churches in particular. Known for the megabucks they make from the mega crowds they attract, it's an obvious step into a lucrative direction: Exploit the idea of a helping god when you dabble in matchmaking. A winning ticket, a guarantee for success like a mint. An online dating service follows similar principles as old fashioned matchmakers - like I used to be in Ireland. You choose potential candidates from any given pool of clients, i.e. paying customers, based on compatibility; or so one hopes at least: age, height, characteristics, hobbies, location, love for pets or lack thereof, adversity to smoking or not. These are just the most minimal criteria for consideration. I'm not ashamed to admit that I made several matches totally ignoring these basic guidelines of a matchmaker's handbook.
Forget all this and put your dreams of romance into God's hands. That'll do! according to a new TV commercial. To sign up with a service that exclusively deals with Christians of whatever flavor a love seeker may favor is a logical step on the super highway of cyber-romance. Then comes the silver bullet: let God choose your match! Having a postgraduate degree in divinity under my belt, this statement made me flinch and run to my PC. Praying was always supposed to help. If that's not enough, people went to a matchmaker to nudge fate along. The matchmaker (dating service) or their computer does the matching. Now God is directly involved.
www.Christianmingle.com is a Christian website that promises "Find God's match for you." You can browse for free. Their questionnaire looks remarkably like mine used to: Height, eye color, build, smoker, drinker? Then they zoom in on your religion. How often do you go to church? What is the name of your church? Zip code? These are identical criteria for computer matching people. I stopped my research when they wanted my name, a name. I guess a handle is allowed. Like with any other online dating service. I hope that will not confuse God when he looks through his data base for the match he has in mind for you.
A devious ruse but I guess a slogan like this wouldn't work as well. "Let God find a match for you, but give us your money to put you in touch with God." Sadly, most of the sheeple who fall for the typical religion scams will find this newest scam as manna from heaven. If your faith is pure, then why would you believe a computer and dating service were necessary? God would provide ... simply through prayer. Skip the computer and service and go straight to the source. You've now got me on my soap-box.
