Pastors’ Antenna Deals Get Their Crosses Wired

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.