We believe that the review of our fellowship written by David L. is inaccurate, unfair, and does not reflect the truth about our church or the cell tower issue. As a close neighbor of ours, we have lovingly reached out to David and his family on several occasions over the years and invited them to attend worship services with us, but they have declined our invitation. Because of the fact that David has never actually stepped foot in our sanctuary and has never attended our church for any period of time, he knows very little about our people, our leadership, our doctrine, or the many things that our church does to make the world in which we live a better place. Our hope is that David would come visit us and actually get to know us.
Regarding the cell tower issue, in the interests of all concerned we would like to briefly present a few facts:
1. Cellular technology is all around us and has become a vital part of modern life. Our decision to sign a lease with Verizon is not illegal or unusual as many institutions in good locations with large parking lots have done the same thing and have even been encouraged to do so by government entities who see cell phone coverage as a vital part of their citizens' safety and a vital link for communication with fire and police services.
2. We signed the lease after 5 years of discussions with various cellular companies and after assuring ourselves that our lease would provide not only a benefit to our church but that it would also provide a great benefit to our community in terms of improving signal, eliminating areas of poor coverage, and improving our community's ability to communicate.
3. Before we signed the lease we examined the health issues that have been raised by some and we assured ourselves that the cellular technology to be used in our parking lot is entirely safe. The truth is that a cell site has much less radio frequency output than the typical wireless modem, baby monitor system, or microwave oven that is in use in most homes today. The specific studies done by Verizon on the output of our particular site verify this to be the case and show that the signal output of our site is much less than most wireless appliances.
4. The photograph that David L. posted of the cell tower is not an accurate rendition of the actual tower that will be constructed and is quite ugly. The actual tower will become an architectural feature of our church and the original Los Angeles County Planning Commission hearing officer who approved the project complimented the aesthetics of the design.
5. When protesters showed up at our church they demanded a community meeting. Our church immediately organized one in our Fellowship Hall. We had an open microphone and encouraged any and all comments & questions to be made. Verizon flew in one of our country's leading experts on radio frequencies to answer questions. Sadly, the protesters who requested the meeting did not attend but instead chose to protest the very meeting they requested!
7. The protests at our church were carried out in violation of Calif. State Penal Code section 302 which makes it unlawful to disrupt religious services with any unnecessary noise. Our church had to endure months of protesters unlawfully targeting and disrupting our sacred services with extremely loud screaming and bullhorns. We never asked them not to protest, but simply that they would respect the law and the sanctity of our services.
8. Contrary to what David said in his review, our Board offered to enter into a settlement agreement with the protesters but they declined our offer.
9. David accuses our church members of theft and vandalism but he has offered no tangible proof for such an accusation. Our church policy has always been to follow the Golden Rule given by Jesus which is to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Regarding the accusation that our church has "multiple infractions at there (sic) location," we would like to state for the record we are not in violation of any County ordinance. 1. Our use of temporary signage has been approved by the County as Holiday decorations. 2. We have made sure that our temporary storage facilities comply completely with County ordinances. 3. Our parking lot is in complete compliance with County regulations and our CUP. At this point we are required to have 59 parking spaces including 2 ADA spaces. We have provided 68 spaces including the 2 ADA spaces required so we have an excess of 9 spaces.
We understand that some people in our community are opposed to the advance of cellular technology and would like to see it eliminated. We also understand that those who feel this way may never be able to see our church in a positive light. However, even in disagreement we offer the olive branch of love and acceptance. We invite you to come fellowship with us and to find agreement on those issues that are eternally significant.
God's blessings on all.
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