Monday, February 21, 2005

Neil Clark Warren, Not Just Christian, Creepy Christian

Thanks to that anonymous commenter who alerted me to the fact that Neil Clark Warren, whose "eharmony.com" is constantly advertised on Air America Radio, is not just sorta Christian, but a pal of right-wing wacko, James Dobson. It does say right on Warren's profile on the eharmony page that he has appeared on "Focus on the Family" but I never noticed this before. Thank goodness I didn't give them any of my money.
It is sort of old news. I did a little googling and discovered a few articles, including this one one which sent me to this one at the Daily Kos,. Finally, I found this oneat monkeyfilter which has a lot of astonished commentary following it, including the interesting fact that (Bush contributors) Sequoia Capital and Crossover Ventures just invested $110 million in the company at the end of last year.
There's nothing wrong with creating a Christian dating service, but there is something troubling about the "stealth" quality of eharmony and the weird, panicky ideas that you can find in their published work.

Here, for example, is :
one of NCW's articles for FOF

One Christian database said that Dr. Warren founded an outfit called the "Associated Psychological Services" in Pasadena, CA. Here's something by one of their on-staff counselers, which describes the plague of pornography and how it can disrupt a happy marriage:
"Secret Sins of the Heart"

And what about Dr. Warren's previous academic deanship? Well that was at an institution called the Fuller Theological Seminary, an evangelical college whose history you can read about here. Basically, it seems that it began with a radio ministry.
Now what types of fellows will we find there?
According to C. Eugene Walker's 1965 book review of one of the founder of the psychology program, Donald J. Tweedie, Jr., (the one where Warren once was the dean), Tweedie's book contains "admonitions to use Bible reading and prayer with virtually all counselers (whether Christian or not) since herein lies the only hope of help; and, the view that non-Christian psychotherapists really can't help their patients. However, he grants that God may choose to help some of them in spite of the nonChristian therapist. These discussions are sprinkled with references to the Holy Spirit as the "Great Psychologist" and as a "participant observer" in therapy" For more, go here
I suppose it's possible that the college has gotten more relaxed since the 1960s, but I doubt that, given the climate in the country, and in Southern California in particular during the 1970s and 80s.
So, Eharmony promises true love, unbelievable compatibility and then takes your money for their crazy right wing causes. While some say it is old news, why then is Air America happily taking their money and why is it that Friendster just made a big advertizing deal with them? Did either business look very far into this new client?? If people freaked out that Bowlmor lanes had Palestinian investors, it seems that people should freak out that eharmony is a stealthy right wing Christian cash cow.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry you don't agree with Christianity. Try spending your time with someone who does profess love for you--Jesus, rather than trashing someone. He who finds a wife finds favor from the Lord (Proverbs).

Prayer is something that grows our relationship to God and He will lead us down the right path.

Anonymous said...

me too

Christian said...

For me Im equal:Coz we have different opinion or ideas.. And very few religious people are actually religious nowadays, it's all twisted .christian relationships