The older I get as a “single again” Christian woman, the more I notice a peculiar trend that I can’t quite account for:  Christian men, by and large, don’t pursue women and ask them out on dates. Now, the sheer fact that there are Christian married couples out there seems to make hash of my observation – obviously, at some point these husbands had to pursue the women who eventually became their wives. But start asking around among small groups of Christian single women and you’ll see what I mean. Their frustration with the “dating scene” – or lack thereof – in Christian circles is so common you begin to hear a refrain.

“What’s up with Christian guys?” my friend Whitney lamented. “I went to the 'Keys with three girlfriends, and guys hit on us all the time [of course they declined]. Yet here at home, in our Christian singles groups, we can’t even get a guy to acknowledge us, let alone ask for a date.”

Janet told me that a guy in her Bible study has been paying a lot of attention to her lately, but every time he calls he asks if she wants to “grab a bite to eat” with him – and his roommate.

Becky has a different complaint. She met a wonderful Christian man on the tennis court and got to know him gradually, over several months, until their casual friendship deepened into what she thought was something more. When he invited her over for dinner, she sparkled inside, sure he was taking their relationship to the next level. After the second such dinner, the two of them watched a movie together on the sofa – enjoying an evening of laughter and innocent companionship. Then the unexpected happened. The guy “dropped off the face of the earth,” Becky said. Two weeks passed with no word from him, no friendly phone call – nada. Finally, both puzzled and frustrated, she called him and asked how things were. He stammered that they needed to just be friends and all but slammed a door closed in her face.

Is It Commitment Phobia?

You might be tempted to chalk it up to the common male malady of “commitment phobia,” but the sheer volume of such stories out there makes me wonder.

I know that many Christian singles were hugely impacted by Joshua Harris’ best-selling book "I Kissed Dating Goodbye," in which he recommends interacting with the opposite sex in groups until you find “the one” and are ready for courtship – intentional dating with an eye toward marriage.

But it seems unlikely that this mindset accounts for the overwhelming lack of dating among Christians, because so many Christian singles don’t espouse Harris’ viewpoint. Again, casual conversations (in this case, with men) shed light on the subject. Wanting to get to the core of the issue, I asked a few guys in my own singles Bible study what was up.