 J.P. and Amanda Duffy |
Just two days after WND published an exclusive guest column criticizing noted matchmaking service eHarmony.com for advising about one-night stands, the company has apologized and pulled the advice from its website.
“eHarmony is committed to helping its members find highly compatible, long-term relationships, and I regret that the inappropriate content and tone of the column could lead our members to believe that we were not interested in their long-term relationship success,” said the posting from Stan Holt, vice president for publishing.
“For nearly a decade, eHarmony has served its members very effectively by delivering matches that have resulted in tens of thousands of marriages. We apologize to anyone who read the column and found it inappropriate,” he said.
The commentary from J.P. and Amanda Duffy noted how the couple, celebrating their two-year anniversary of being matched on eHarmony, had “praised the matching service for promoting healthy, life-long marriage relationships.”
Amanda is a high school art teacher and J.P. is media director for the Family Research Council, a Washington, D.C.-based public policy organization.
“To the skeptics of online dating, we explained that eHarmony is unique in that the matching service doesn’t promote the ‘hook-up’ culture. According to the company’s mission statement, their goal is to ‘help couples achieve stronger, healthier and happier marriages,'” the couple wrote.
But then a friend told them of eHarmony’s e-newsletter: “Navigating the one-night stand.”
“Our friend read the first few lines: ‘So you’re a swinging single, and you’ve had a one-night stand. What’s the etiquette for establishing boundaries, calling the day after and getting out without hurting feelings?'” the couple wrote.
“Promoting such high-risk, promiscuous behavior is outrageous and irresponsible,” they wrote. “The advice column glosses over the risks of sexually transmitted diseases … ,” they wrote. “Also glossed over is the increased risk for violence among those who ‘navigate’ multiple sexual partners.”
“Several years ago, Dr. Neil Clark Warren, founder of eHarmony, was closely associated with Focus on the Family. He separated from the organization after deciding to expand his services to the wider market. However, ‘Navigating the One Night Stand’ takes this a step further by completely breaking eHarmony away from its Christian, pro-marriage beginnings,” the couple wrote.
But the apology from Holt said “the advice contained in this column was completely inconsistent with our editorial guidelines and the relationship service that we offer to our members. The day after sending the e-mail newsletter, I was made aware of the column, and it was immediately removed from our site.”
“You deserve and expect the best from eHarmony and we are dedicated to providing information that resonates with our diverse, vibrant, and thriving community,” he continued. “Please be assured that we are immediately upgrading our editorial review process and are also reviewing our existing content to make sure that it is consistent with the interests of our members.”
“I wanted to thank you for publishing our op-ed on the eHarmony ‘One Night Stand’ article,” J.P. Duffy wrote to WND. “My wife and I have received many supportive e-mails from your readers. eHarmony sent me an apology and posted it on their website.”
“We fully accept the apology and are greatly encouraged that the statement calls the article ‘completely inconsistent’ with the relationship service that they offer to their members,” he wrote. “I thank eHarmony for recognizing its mistake and making it clear that they wish to remain in the values-matching service business.”
The company boasts it is “America’s No. 1 trusted relationship service.”
“Recent research presented at the American Psychological Society found that eHarmony married couples are significantly happier than couples married for a similar length of time who met by other means,” the website says.
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