It seems there are certain things you don't speak of at a Christian college and oh my, Tinder is one of them. Mention Tinder in class, and you will get the face. The “Oh. My. Goodness. She’s on Tinder” face.

Well, my name is Amber, and I'm on Tinder-- and while we’re confessing/professing, I have tried out just about every dating app out of curiosity.

Now, I'm not going to claim that I've never been a protester of Tinder. In fact, it was against my wishes when my friend downloaded it on my phone and made my profile for me. I tried it, and a day later I deleted it because I was disgusted by the shallowness of “people shopping.” A few hours later I redownloaded it, then deleted it, the redownloaded, then…. just imagine Rapunzel from Tangled trying to decided if it was a good idea to leave her castle - and that was me.

My fellow Christian friends had mixed responses. One literally took my phone and deleted it against my will, another gave me the “you're better than that” speech, and another downloaded it and we tindered together. I got pretty mixed responses, but they were overwhelmingly negative.

“Tinder is just for hookups.”

My bio, as short as it is, says the words: Not down for hooking up. That seems like argument enough since I'm on Tinder, but I'll go on. I get messages often, and one of the best lines I've gotten was, “are you up for hooking down?” and then typically followed by “haha how are you?” Simple and harmless.

Many guys acknowledge that part of my bio, we talk, and they respect that I’m not a booty call. If they swipe right and see that after, then they just don't message me. It's not a problem. Yes, people are on there for hookups, but that doesn't mean everybody is. Let’s not make gross generalizations and assumptions about the 50 million people who use Tinder every month.

“No good guys are on Tinder.”

I equate this phrase with, “All guys are jerks.” If you believe that, you should really broaden your horizons. This is just a extreme generalization, and not fair to the many great guys on Tinder-- remember that 50 million number? I'm not a mathematician, but odds are at least a couple of them are good guys. Being on a dating app doesn't lessen a person's character and doesn't mean something is wrong with the guy. It's hard to meet people, especially with the Seattle Freeze being legitimately real, so what's wrong with a bit of electronic help? We are the digital generation, so why don’t we just embrace it?

“It's just so superficial.”

It may surprise you, but I can’t argue with this one. Choosing who to flirt with based on if you’re attracted to them is just wrong and horrible... Yet completely what every human does every time they choose flirt. Yes, it can be called people shopping and it can be all about how someone looks, but I guarantee people will go out with the guy they’re having a good conversation with over the guy with five pictures of his perfectly sculpted abs and wonderful calves.

For a liberal Christian school who is trying to do all they can to break the religious and judgmental stereotype, it is pretty judgmental about the dating app. Sure, there are some bad things about it, but what about my friend Aaron meeting his wife on the app? Ask them and they say it was “love at first swipe,” and let’s point out that God is still the center of their relationship. Or what about my fellow life group leader, Marie? Her and her Tinder swipe have been together for a few years, are happily married, and again, are a Christian couple involved in ministry. Or what about the other countless success stories I have heard from numerous people?

So, don’t mind me while I won’t demonize the app that brought together some fantastic people. As a reminder to my fellow Christians out there, God works in mysterious ways, is present in all things, and of course He can turn an app into a method for His glorious madness.