I was having a chat with a new affiliate at SinglesofFaith this morning and I heard an attitude that disturbed me a bit.   I saw that the affiliate had reviewed BigChurch and given it a great rating and raved about what a good place is was for Christians looking for dates.

I mentioned the details on the backstory of BigChurch and he responded that he was a Christian and he didn’t see a problem with sending people to BigChurch because they provide a nice niche dating site for Christians that many Christian have had good luck with.    He mentioned that he knew that they also had niche sites and made  money from a number of other niches that most traditional Christians would consider offensive but had no problem with that.

Is it bad theology for me to liken this to serving two masters?

No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Matthew 6:24 (NIV)

I don’t think you can claim to be a “Christian” dating site and look to profit from it if you are also promoting values and actions that are “abhorrant” to God.

I have real concern for the legitimately Christian sites out there that are affiliated with BigChurch and the like and think it’s okay -if they know what the company behind the BigChurch brand is really  up to.

It’s one thing if they are ignorant.  It’s another to know that you are promoting a “Christian” site that is owned and operated by a company that profits from promoting and facilitating adultery,etc  and continue doing it for the money.

I have not always been a Christian.  I have not always been involved in projects that could be considered in line with my current beliefs.    About 2 years back I walked away from a job that probably would have earned me well over $500,000 per year monetizinf 50 of the top “adult” domains in the UK.   That was easy money, but on the eve of signing the deal… I asked myself “at what cost?”

Yeah… I could be making a lot of money… but I would be the equivalent of a street drug dealer.    Promoting poison that addicts and profiting from it.

So, I called the prospective client and told them that I’d pass… and that while I’d like to say “I wish you the best”  I couldn’t.  I  wish the guys efforts failed miserably.

It’s time for Christian webmasters to make a stand and make sure that they know the details on who they promote.   If the site is one that is not in keeping with your values and those of your audience, even it it’s not obvious on the site they want you promote, it’s time to pass and find some guys who are Gospel advancing to work with.

It’s been said that “the Devil is in the details.”

How true.

As I have discussed here time and time again,  “Christian” dating is a minefield of legitimate and illegitimate offers that target Christians.

Some are great and Christian in ownership and mission in vision like SinglesofFaith, ChristianCafe, CatholicMatch, etc and some like BigChurch are really flawed and shouldn’t be promoted by Christians to Christians.

A lot of Christian webmasters are still running BigChurch though because they either don’t know better or choose to look the other way for the cash.   Hey, I’ll admit it - they build a great landing page and they know the science of conversion… but they should.  They’re essentially a re-faced porn site that is veneered to appeal to Christians.

There are a couple of sites I like who play “watch dog” over the space and I really value what they bring to the table in terms of doing the research on corporate ownership of the “Christian” dating sites and giving people the straight scoop.   Then, today one of them really chapped my hide.

I saw SinglesofFaith listed as one of the sites not to work with due to “deceptive marketing practices.”  I beg to differ.  SOF is so legitimately Christian it’s ridiculous.  They absolutely should be listed with ChristianCafe and Single Christians Network as one of the “good guys”   I checked with Mike at SOF specifically on the types of marketing methods that were frowned on (bidding on competitor keywords) and was assured that this is not the case.

So- I attempted to contact the site owner through his contact form to get some clarification… hey - if my client has done something wrong, we’d like to fix it.   The “Contact us” form is broken.

Bottom line -  there is what we feel is incorrect negative info on the site up on the page and no way to get any feedback or get a changed noted and recommendation made.   ARGGGGH!

“Dog,” if you are out there and see this, please get in touch.  I love your site and want to be able to recommend you as the gold standard.  But we need to clear this up.
God Bless,

Wade Tonkin