Subject: Antennas in Church Steeples (Kelley)..
Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1999 023645 -0600 (CST)
From: "Roy L. Beavers"
To: emfguru
--------------------------------------------------
.......Once again -- somebody tell those churches (the governing boards,
not the poor ministers, who don't know about such things) that the
churches assume some of the liability exposure in the event of law-suits
by "the neighborhood" for damages to property or persons "caused" by
the antennas..... The churches have become an "actionable party."....
Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
rbeavers@llion.org
.....It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.....
NEW!!! Website
...................People are more important than profits.................
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1999 21:09:22 -0800
From: Libby Kelley
To: rbeavers@llion.org
Subject: Antennas in Church Steeples
LA Times Article, Orange County Edition
WIRED
By BILL LOBDELL, Times Staff
Writer
For a growing number of
Orange County churches, the cross is more than
the central symbol of
Christianity. It's also a money-maker.
Phone
companies--desperate for places to put cellular phone antennas in
residential communities--have
turned to the highest point in many
neighborhoods: the cross atop
a church.
"It was the money, quite
frankly," said Pastor Rick Marshall of Brea
Congregational Church, one of
the new homes to a cell-phone antenna. "We
don't even notice it's there,
and if they're willing to pay us . . . "
In Newport Beach, Newport
Harbor Lutheran Church leaders also allowed
Pacific Bell Wireless Services
to hide an antenna inside the 52-foot-high
cross that stands outside
their sanctuary.
"It's a source of
income," said one church leader, who asked not to be
named because of potential
controversy. "We're trying to do the work of the
Lord, and the money helps us
do it."
If a church doesn't have
a steeple, no problem--the phone companies will
supply one. At Green Hills
Baptist Church in La Habra, Pacific Bell built a
40-foot tower complete with
cross and antennas attached to each of three
legs.
"It's important that it
doesn't detract from the image or the ministry of the
church," Pastor Bob Gallina
said. "This one is tastefully done."
In other cases, a
church's bell tower provides a better home for the
antenna than the cross.
At St. Thomas More
Church, which is under construction in Irvine,
parish leaders have designed a
campanile--60 feet high with a 10-foot-high
cross--capable of housing a
cell-phone antenna.
"It's a service to the
community," Father John Janze said, "and we make
some money out of it, which
means we can pay off our debt sooner."
In recent years, the
booming cell-phone industry has had to come up
with creative solutions to
hide antennas in populated communities. The
results: antennas--some as
small as 12 inches by 4 inches--hidden in fake
palm and pine trees, in
architectural flourishes tacked onto buildings and in
light poles at parks.
It's a process called
"stealthing," said Steve Crosby, vice president of
AT&T Wireless Services.
"As we expand, we have to
get more creative," Crosby said. "In Southern
California with five main
competitors, you have all of us trying to meet our
customers' needs."
The average antenna deal
generates between $1,500 and $2,000 a month
for a church, Crosby says.
"I'm a Catholic, and I'll
work with any church to make sure the antenna
fits within their structure,"
Crosby said. "I hold reverence toward all
religions, and we won't at all
hurt their symbols."
Nobody knows exactly how
many phone companies have successfully
pitched themselves to
churches, but a Pacific Bell Wireless spokesman says
it's "something that's not
uncommon."
And the wireless people
likely will be knocking on your church's doors
soon, if they haven't already.
In Orange County, cell phones aren't as
ubiquitous as they seem.
Southern California is one of the least penetrated
cell phone markets, Crosby
says, which means rapid growth ahead. And
churches, with their lofty
steeples and bell towers, are perfect locales for
antennas.
Opinions differ on
whether antennas and churches are a match made in
heaven.
"There's a part of me
that finds it offensive because it's the cross and
anything attached to it is a
distraction," said Mike Regele, president of
Costa Mesa-based Percept, a
consulting firm for churches and
denominations. "But it's
invisible to the world, so why should you care? I
could work myself up on either
side."
And then Regele works
himself up against the antenna-in-the-cross idea.
"It is a symbol of our
continuing captivity to the culture--now we're
going to ram antennas into the
central symbol of Christianity," Regele said.
"As long as there's no
aesthetic change, it would seem to me there would
be no problem with that," said
Monsignor Lawrence J. Baird, director of
communications for the
Catholic Diocese of Orange. "None comes to mind."
The Rev. Dr. Martin
Schramm, dean of humanities at Concordia
University and an amateur
radio buff, has struggled recently with whether to
place a radio antenna in the
college's bell tower, upon which rests a cross.
But he does see a
difference between using church symbols for a radio
antenna--which could be used
in case of disasters--and for moneymaking
ventures.
"It starts to make the
cross sound like a commercial enterprise, and I can
see how people might take
offense to that," Schramm said. "If it's a
moneymaking enterprise, it
could turn some stomachs. I don't like to venture
into areas where anyone could
get offended.
"I'd prefer not to use
the cross this way. When you're talking spiritual
matters, if I was going to
err, I'd err on the side of trying to keep everyone
happy."
William Lobdell, editor
of Times Community News, writes a column for
The Times' Orange County
religion page on Saturdays. His e-mail address is
bill.lobdell@latimes.com.
j
Copyright 1999 Los Angeles Times
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com