Christian Mingle or Christian Money Pit?

by +Brad Naylor

By now you have probably heard of ChristianMingle.com, a popular internet dating sight designed just for Christians. If you haven't then I just explained what it was in the previous sentence. Their TV advertising campaign emphasizes that they can help you "find God's match for you".

More like FUND God's Match

ChristianMingle.com is a niche or special interest online personal site according to it's owner, Spark Networks, who also happen to own JDate.com (Jewish), BlackSingles.com and LDSMingle.com (Latter Day Saints/Mormons) as well as the everyday dating site, Spark.com. They do not however own Muslim Match.

The idea behind ALL dating sites is to prey on people's insecurities and turn the fear of growing old alone into cold hard cash. Now I am not a religious type, but I have read that God is an alright kind of guy. If he wants you to find his match for you then it will happen without you paying up to $30 a month to some company with a database full of equally desperate people. On the bright side, when the computer does find you a date, you will have something in common - you both gave a crap-load of money to some company to find a soul mate.

How much does it cost to get laid find a soul mate?

I signed up for a Christian Mingle account last year, purely for research purposes, and I was amazed at how honest their site is. They are very upfront about telling you that if you want to do more than just look at pictures, you need to upgrade to a premium account. Freeloaders have their experience practically crippled to mere voyeurism. 

They also bait you into spending more money by offering various extras like COMPASS matching and Comprehensive Personal Analysis, claiming that you will find more accurate matches if you do these things. I filled out a basic analysis for free and was instantly sent an email telling me I could save more than $70 on Dr. Hartman's Comprehensive Personal Analysis, a personality profile across 100+ dimensions, which usually costs $100. Honestly, I am not sure if I have more than 3 dimensions, so I saved my money on that one.

Give us money and we will let you do more than just look

If you still like the idea of spending money to find God's Match then go for it. As far as dating sites go, it is well laid out and easy to navigate, and it really doesn't cost any more than other established dating sites. Given the supposed Christian background of most subscribers, I trust that the majority of user submitted photos are genuine rather than internet sourced supermodel images, which most of us would need to join this shallow minded dating site, BeautifulPeople.com. However, I do offer one word of caution. Watch your spelling when you type in the website address. I missed an 'L' and ended up on this site:

I missed out the L, now I'm having an L of a time

By the way, ChristianMingle.com, I apologize for setting up a dummy account on your site and if you find it I do expect it to get removed instantly. Also to all those great Christian babes who viewed me on ChristianMingle.com, I am single but not a christian, so sorry for misleading you. And besides, I didn't spring for the subscription so we couldn't have chatted anyway. If you still want to hook up then leave me a comment below.