‘I thought i might find a spouse, maybe not a stalker’: Do spiritual dating apps put women in peril?

The sensation of safety on spiritual online dating sites might be an illusion, and a dangerous one at that.

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SALT LAKE CITY — When Marla Perrin, now 25, first found out about Mutual, the dating app created for users of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she had been delighted.

Perrin had tried dating apps like Tinder into the past, but found the feeling frustrating and fruitless: the guys she matched with often didn’t share her faith, along with her guard ended up being always up, stressed that someone would harass or stalk her.

But Mutual appeared like a oasis that is dating Perrin, who had been located in Hawaii and seeking to get a partner. She thought that the guys regarding the software had been all people in her church, which implied she could finally flake out: they might have the exact same values and objectives of dating — such as for example no intercourse before marriage — and so they could be respectful of her boundaries.

Approximately she thought, until she matched with a returned missionary who at first felt successful and in good physical shape. But after happening a primary date him arrogant and pushy, she told him she wasn’t interested in seeing him again with him and finding.

“Don’t lie if you ask me,” he responded. Their response made the hairs in the relative straight back of her throat remain true, and she straight away blocked their quantity. Later on that evening, she received phone calls from three numbers that are random them all him — and she blocked those too, and hoped which was the the conclusion of it.

But days later on, she received a note from an Instagram account from a man claiming to reside inside her area. They exchanged a messages that are few he asked her away. She agreed to meet in front of the safest place she could think of: the Laie Hawaii Temple as she was still feeling skittish after her last experience. Continue reading