Crystal Cathedral Crowds May Have to Brave Spray

Call it Round 2 in the battle between the Mediterranean fruit fly and the Rev. Robert H. Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral.

Two months after the Garden Grove church’s exemption from a January malathion spraying brought it a brief flurry of bad publicity, the ministry now faces another dilemma:

A pair of special performances of “The Glory of Easter,” a major event expected to draw several thousand people, is set for the same night as the next aerial assault over Garden Grove--March 29.

This time around, however, Crystal Cathedral officials are treading more cautiously.

Church officials said they contacted state Medfly Project officials on Tuesday to express concern about the possibility that the next aerial spraying may mar the church’s annual extravaganza.

However, Rob Owen, a spokesman for Schuller, stressed: “We’re not asking for a waiver or any other special treatment.

“If the state decides to spray us later in the evening,” after two special “family night” shows have ended, “that’s great,” Owen said. “But that’s their decision.”

State officials said Tuesday that they have no plans to alter the spraying schedule.

Malathion critics are already up in arms, having surreptitiously checked with the church box office to see if staff people there are warning show-goers about the night’s spraying.

“It’s irresponsible of the cathedral to bring out 3,000 people on a spray night knowing there could be hazards,” said anti-malathion organizer Bob Taylor, a resident of Garden Grove.

Orange County malathion opponents said about half a dozen people from their ranks called the church posing as potential ticket-buyers to find out if the church was telling people about the spraying. The activists said they were not told anything about the malathion application scheduled for that night.

The March 29 performances of “The Glory of Easter” are part of several specially planned “family night” performances of Crystal Cathedral’s popular annual holiday show. For those performances, families are offered reduced rates.

The church expects a big crowd for the two shows that night, Owen said. Depending on the timing, the shows could be beginning or letting out around the time that the malathion helicopters make their rounds. Generally, the spraying begins about 9 p.m. and ends sometime after 1 a.m.

State officials recommend that people stay indoors during the sprayings, although they also assert that the mixture of pesticide and fly bait poses no health hazard in the low dosages used in the aerial applications. They also recommend that cars be covered to avoid tarnishing.

For the Jan. 25 spraying over 36 square miles around Garden Grove and Westminster, state officials agreed to avoid Crystal Cathedral because of a ministers conference going on at the time. That provoked angry protests, including a flood of tongue-in-cheek requests from residents to be exempted from sprayings for such reasons as a dog’s birthday party.

The outcry over the exemption directed at Crystal Cathedral “caused a lot of heartache and headaches for our community,” Owen said.

In the wake of the incident, state officials pledged that there would be no more exemptions during the remainder of the spraying program, now scheduled to last through May 9 under an accelerated schedule that was announced this week.