Does the black church keep black women single?

[Blue_Tires]

Deborrah Cooper claims that the ideology and settings of the black church are key reasons why black women are single.STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Dating advice columnist Deborah Cooper: Black church keeps black women single
Pew report: Nearly 55 percent of African-Americans "interpret scripture literally"
The Rev. Renita J. Weems: Black women need to understand their purpose for attending church
To find a man, women must look beyond the church, Cooper says
RELATED TOPICS
African-American Issues
Dating
Christianity
Relationships
(CNN) -- Legs covered in skin-toned stockings, her skirt crisp to the knee, Patty Davis slips on the black heels she has shined for the day.

"Got to look good in the Lord's house," she says as she spritzes her neck with White Diamonds perfume and exits her black Lincoln Town Car.

Davis, 46, of Union City, Georgia, has attended African Methodist Episcopal churches since before she could crawl. She sits proudly in the pew every Sunday for service and is among the first to arrive for bible study each Wednesday.

She moves swiftly, with confidence, a weathered Bible clutched in her right hand, the day's passages dog-eared and highlighted. She's the type of woman who can recite scriptures with ease, her love of faith evident in her speech.

"Every day is a blessed day for me," she says. "Jesus is the No. 1 man in my life and any man who wants me must seek me through Him."

The unmarried Georgia native is a committed follower of the Christian faith, striving to live and breathe the gospel in her daily life. Yet, according to relationship advice columnist Deborrah Cooper, it is this devout style of belief and attachment to the black church that is keeping black women like Davis - single and lonely.

Clinging to the gospel

Cooper, a writer for the San Francisco Examiner, recently made claims on her blog SurvivingDating.com that predominantly black protestant churches, such as African Methodists, Pentecostal, and certain denominations of Evangelical and Baptist churches are the main reason black women are single. Cooper, who is black and says she is not strictly religious, argues that rigid beliefs constructed by the black church are blinding black women in their search for love.

In raising the issue, Cooper ignited a public conversation about a topic that is increasingly getting attention in the black community and beyond. Oprah Winfrey, among others, recently hosted a show about single black women and relationships after a Yale University study found that 42 percent of African-American women in the United States were unmarried.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/08/10/black.church.women.single/?hpt=Sbin

[Brewman_Jax]

1. If the personals are any indication

The tendency is: white posters want a tall, rich/well-off white man to take care of them; black posters want a tall black man to go to church with them.