Prayer centers get more job pleas

By Bob Smietana • THE TENNESSEAN • February 4, 2009

Judith Cote has the ultimate recession-proof job.

She talks to God for a living.

With the economy in the tank, her phone has been ringing off the hook. Cote, a prayer counselor at a Nashville call center for Pat Robertson's The 700 Club program, says she's in the business of giving hope.

"This is a lifeline for people," Cote said.

Cote is one of 150 prayer counselors who answer phones at the Nashville prayer counseling center, which receives about 2.5 million prayer requests a year, mostly from viewers of The 700 Club. The two biggest requests to the toll-free prayer line are for physical healing and financial stresses, with calls about foreclosure and layoffs becoming commonplace.

"We are getting more and more stories of, 'My husband got laid off today, I got laid off, we are losing our home,' " said Tracy Swager, director of the prayer center. "The number of calls hasn't changed, but the intensity has."