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Jen Spencer had the jitters before she met up with her date Kenneth at an amusement park in the summer of 2012. It was a first date, but they had been talking for months.

“It was exciting and relieving,” said Spencer. “Once the first minute you meet face-to-face passes, it’s like ‘I can breath again.’”

The two met on ChristianMingle, an online dating website for Christians. The site has gained 5 million new users in the last two years.

Even though the couple didn’t last past the summer, Spencer, 32, was nevertheless grateful to have met a like-minded man who shared her passion for the Christian faith.

“If I said I didn’t want somebody without a Christian background, I would be lying to myself, and wasting my time,” she said. With the tensions and conflicts that can exist in a relationship, Spencer said the foundation of faith becomes an important unifying force.

Sociologist Gerald Mendelsohn says the practice of choosing a romantic partner with a shared religion, culture, ethnicity and or nationality, is driving the demand for niche religious dating sites like ChristianMingle, JDate, which caters to Jewish singles, and Muslima, for Muslims.

And as these sites become more popular, the dating industry rakes in higher revenues. According to a recent market research report, the dating service industry is expected to reach $2 billion this year, growing at 2.9 percent in revenue every year since 2008.

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article courtesy of Joy105.com

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