Outsourced Prayer Lines

So there are things that should be outsourced, and things that you don't expect. I expect "Bob" in tech support to be in India. I was surprised, but not shocked to learn that Indian Doctors review your chest x-rays and brain scans overnight. But a Prayer Line? A Christian Prayer line from a televangelist.?

Well, that is where the company India Prayer Solutions (in Mumbai) comes in. Apparently there "There aren't enough Americans willing to sit in the prayer tower and take calls anymore," says a prayer coordinator at a major ministry which jobbed out its prayer lines last year."

But some things need unique sight.

For example, you should not finish a prayer conversation with a poor sad, depressed Evangelical (I assume if you call a prayer line something is probably wrong) like this: Last month, Lori Danes, 43, called the prayer line of a major television ministry and requested prayer for her mother's persistent ulcers. But her prayer representative, who called himself "Darren," prayed in a strong Indian accent that "all the gods would bless her mightily."

How did Lori Danes feel? "I was stunned," Danes says. "It was like I'd called a demon prayer line."