God Beams in Mysterious Ways

August 14, 2001

Tech-savvy religious leaders are increasingly using personal data assistants such as the Palm Pilot to evangelize, prepare sermons or even compute sunset times for Jewish Sabbath festivals.

Hand-held computers have typically been marketed to business professionals. But a growing number of software programs available on the Internet are mingling the Gospel and other holy texts with appointments, telephone numbers and to-do lists.

Paul Oehler, an engineer who helped design the process for making the Palm V, said the increasing ability to beam information was bound to change the hand-held computer's uses.

"We suspected it would have some impact on their lives, simply because it's portable. ... It's a good way to share information," he said.

And God beams in mysterious ways.

Personal data assistants enable users to send information across short distances through infrared signals. Some people are using that ability to evangelize.

Russell Lake, president of HeartSpring Media in Keller, Texas, is publishing free evangelistic software at

With it, the faithful can touch a button and send possible converts a short lesson on apologetics--the defense of Christian beliefs based on science and other evidence.

Problems transmitting data between the two major personal data assistant operating systems--the PalmOS and Windows CE--will limit who can send and receive HeartSpring's message. The current HeartSpring program is only for the Palm, but an evangelistic message is being developed for the Windows version.

Forcing unwanted transmissions, called spam, on Palms is not part of the company's plan.

"You have to ask them whether they want to accept it," Lake said. "You can't receive random beams from outside parties."

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