Click Here(November 24, 2008)
Born-again Christian Neil Clark Warren started eHarmony to pair up men and women to help create lasting marriages. After 36 years as a clinical psychologist and counselor of married couples, Dr. Warren realized that marriages that endured were composed of compatible people.
Warren enlisted the help of a research professor at the University of Southern California to identify the characteristics between spouses that were consistently associated with the most successful relationships. eHarmony has been praised by the Christian community, the website’s initial target audience, but the recent announcement by the company that to avoid a law suit they are starting a website to pair up homosexual people has left some upset. In an article by Eric Young (www.ChristianPost.com) Tony Perkins (President of the Family Research Council) said, “To those of us in the pro-family movement who hailed eHarmony’s commitment to the virtue of traditional marriage, the company’s actions are distressing and damaging.” Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality said in the same article that Dr. Warren had “sold his soul.” In 2005 a New Jersey man, Eric McKinley, accused eHarmony of discriminating against homosexuals by operating a website that searches don’t include people seeking same sex. The company believes’ the complaint was “an unfair characterization of our business,” but they chose to settle because of the “unpredictable nature of litigation.” Theodore B. Olsen, an attorney for eHarmony said that even though the company believed the complaint was “an unfair characterization of our business,” it chose to settle. He states that the legal dispute has been a burden on the company. Under the settlement eHarmony paid the New Jersey state division $50,000 to cover administrative costs; will pay Eric McKinley $5,000; will advertise the new gay website in other gay websites, and will include pictures of same sex models in advertising and promotions.
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