Churches, mosques, and temples have the opportunity to cash in on their steeples – to the tune of $25k and up – as telecom companies, including AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, are willing to pay prime fees to lease space on these tall, strategically-located “points of interest.”
“Next time you pass a church, look up and take a closer look at its steeple,” says DCG Real Estate, which helps churches market themselves to telecoms. “There’s a reasonably good chance it’s a cell tower.”
The initial architecture intent of steeples was to “direct the viewer’s eyes vertically to heaven.” But now, these steeples can serve a dual purpose by garnering religious houses of worship with extra income in a way that involves little effort and no cost. With more antennas needed to transmit 4G and 5G signals, some of the 350,000 religious facilities in the U.S. are prime spots for telecoms to set their sights.
Susan Foster, a medical researcher who has helped firefighters block cell towers on firehouses, said one of the opponents of this practice is, “Churches, synagogues, and mosques are playing with the lives of people and not doing their research.” According to Foster, “they are risking the lives and well-being of the flock they are charged with taking care of. Children at church schools are especially at risk. They are bathed in powerful radiation up to eight hours a day, five days a week. Shame on the churches for ignoring the science.”
Additionally, parishioners in Colorado blocked the installation of a six-panel cell tower on their church, citing potential health impacts from the cell tower’s close proximity to a residential community and a middle school. Residents also came forward with more than 6,000 studies showing harm from electromagnetic radiation (EMR).
September 19, 2017
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