Contributed by: EFoley on Sunday, September 27 2009 @ 01:23 pm
Last modified on
If your faith is important to you, then you want to date people who share in it. You want someone you can take with you to church or to temple, someone to celebrate the holy days with, someone who you can pray with daily. It can sometimes seem difficult on the mainstream dating sites to tell whether or not someone selects "Christian" or "Jewish" because they are practicing or just because they grew up in that faith.
On Mainstream Sites
On mainstream sites like Match.com, it's hard to tell sometimes how serious someone is about their religion. (At least with OkCupid.com, they can select "and serious about it" after their religion choice!) This leaves you in the position of having to tell from their profile text if they are as serious about their faith as you are. Some people make this very easy! I see profiles every day where people say, "God is the most important thing in my life" or "My match should share my faith."
But what if you don't see anything like that? Then, you'll have to send them an email. Don't word it like an interrogation about their religious practices - that will put anyone on the defensive! - but add the question on the end of your email:
"I notice that you're Jewish, do you practice? or "I see you're Catholic, what church do you attend?"
The person will be able to clarify their religious practices in their reply and you'll know if they're someone you want to continue pursuing.
Christian Dating Sites
There are quite a few Christian dating sites - how do you know which one is best for you? It all depends on your preferences. For example, BigChurch.com has an extensive member base, but they are owned by the same people who operate AdultFriendFinder.com, which is a "casual encounters" type dating site. If that bothers you, you may not want to support them. (For some people, it's no biggie. It's not like the two member bases mix!)
There's ChristiansMingle and CatholicsMingle, which are owned by Spark Networks. Spark Networks is a veteran of the dating industry, owning several niche dating sites both for religious and ethnic groups.
eHarmony is sometimes classified as a religious dating site since many of the members are Christians looking to marry other Christians.
But my favorite of the Christian dating sites is ChristianCafe. The site itself isn't flashy or impressive, but the people who created it have been working for a decade to build their community and make it warm, inviting, and most importantly, BIG! If you're looking for a Christian dating site that's owned and operated by Christians and has a list of success stories, you'll want to sign up for the ten day free trial.
Jewish Dating Sites
When Jewish dating comes up, people's minds immediately turn to JDate, which is owned by Spark Networks. It's the biggest and most well known Jewish dating site on the web and for good reasons! JDate's success has even caused non-Jews to sign up in hopes of meeting a Jewish sweetheart.
Also in the Jewish dating niche is Jewish FriendFinder. Like BigChurch.com, Jewish FriendFinder is owned by the same company that operates a casual encounters dating site, Adult FriendFinder. If you have to choose, I'd start with JDate - they're great people!
Good luck and happy dating!
Check out our ChristianCafe review and our JDate reivew for more details on these dating sites.