Check Out: MennoMeet, a dating service

By Julie Fromm

When I think of websites specifically engineered for the purposes of dating, I envision people similar to the character of Kip in Napoleon Dynamite, child molesters and sociopaths (among other socially challenged individuals). I wrinkle my nose and think, “I would never join a dating website.”

Then, as usual when I say I’m never going to do something, I end up doing it. I joined MennoMeet, an online dating site for single Mennonites, but not because I’m a sociopath or a pervert. I did it for the Linscheids. Okay, I admit, I was curious.
One evening, about two months ago, I was in the kitchen pouring a bowl of cereal and minding my own business for once when one of my house mates and dearest friends, Aaron Linscheid, burst through the door and exclaimed that “the coolest thing has happened! They made a dating service for Mennonites!”
I sarcastically replied, “Well, I hope it comes with a family tree application, that way people can make sure they’re not related before they Menno-mate.” Aaron recited the criterion for joining, which is simply that you must be single and you must be Mennonite.
Therein lay the problem—Caitlin and Aaron are married, but they wanted to check out MennoMeet. “Hey, Jules, you should join to see what it’s all about,” said Caitlin.
Later that night, Caitlin and I jumped onto my bed and began work on my MennoMeet profile. When it came time to choose my friends, the selection process was easy: find the most attractive guys with the least conservative religious views. This process produced approximately two friends and by reading the profiles of others, I was reminded that many Mennonites outside of Bethel are considerably more conservative than me, theologically, politically and socially.
I learned that Mennonites could be just as ridiculous as the next guy. Case in point: my MennoMeet admirer, a recent graduate of Goshen College seemed like a fun guy. He liked sports, he had dark hair and he was literate--everything I yearn for in a man. To make a long story short, we started talking on MennoMeet and then Facebook and through this I found out that we had a few mutual friends, which told me that he was probably not going to stalk me and cut me into a million pieces.
After two phone conversations of constant bragging about all his girls and his sweet new job and a story about how in high school he used to get up at 3 a.m. to walk his pig, I decided that my initial instincts about online dating were correct.
I’m not suggesting that MennoMeet is worthless and stereotypical in terms of on-line dating sites. The idea of creating an avenue to meet other Mennonites outside of the bi-yearly convention is great and I’m positive that more open-minded people have had better luck than me.