Posted on 02/01/2007 12:49:16 PM PST by Publius Valerius
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The NFL has nixed a church's plans to use a wall projector to show the Colts-Bears Super Bowl game, saying it would violate copyright laws.
NFL officials spotted a promotion of Fall Creek Baptist Church's "Super Bowl Bash" on the church Web site last week and overnighted a letter to the pastor demanding the party be canceled, the church said.
< snip >
But the NFL objected to the church's plans to use a projector to show the game, saying the law limits it to one TV no bigger than 55 inches.
The church will likely abandon its plans to host a Super Bowl party.
< snip >
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league's long-standing policy is to ban "mass out-of-home viewing" of the Super Bowl. An exception is made for sports bars and other businesses that show televised sports as a part of their everyday operations.
"We have contracts with our (TV) networks to provide free over-the-air television for people at home," Aiello said. "The network economics are based on television ratings and at-home viewing. Out-of-home viewing is not measured by Nielsen."
< snip >
"It just frustrates me that most of the places where crowds are going to gather to watch this game are going to be places that are filled with alcohol and other things that are inappropriate for children," Newland said. "We tried to provide an alternative to that and were shut down."
Other Indiana churches said they are deciding whether they should go through with their Super Bowl party plans, given the NFL's stance.
(Excerpt) Read more at sportsillustrated.cnn.com ...
What, you never heard of a "Hail Mary" pass?
And did they do those things: breakdancing, rock climbing, surfing, etc. on Sunday. That is what is at issue in the comment, not simply the fact that they plan on watching football.
However, Halloween is rarely on the Sabbath (Sunday), and conveniently October 31 is also All Saints Day.
Your post 18 nails it. I used to go to them in a previous century and that is exactly what they were. I avoid broadcast spectator sports like the plague now and even avoid those parties. All the commercial breaks drove a wooden stake in the heart of the beast for me.
Show the game anyway. I'd love to see the NFL sue the church. Great PR.
Where are you getting that they are charging admission fees?
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From the 3rd paragraph of the linked story.
Really? Where?
Sports Bars and others doing this are paying copyright fees to the copyright holders and their agents, such as ASCAP, BMI, etc. And they pay a considerable sum!
Key words: At least, indirectly.
And Church of Christ believes that it says (indirectly) that all music should be a-capella.
Churches may worship on Sunday, but no pastor I know calls it the Sabbath, nor did anybody in the Bible. It is a day we meet, it is not the Sabbath.
The game isn't until 6:30PM.
Since football is a "religion" where I live, it seems to me to be a family squabble. I certainly cannot see how one mega-church (the NFL) can tell another "church" how it can run its business. (:^)
And you would be wrong.
About ten years ago, I got my former church to do a Super Bowl outreach. There was a group that produced a video with several football players who gave their testimonies and presented a gospel message during halftime.
Besides that, whoever said that evengelicals weren't allowed to watch a football game?
Almost all of them: Roman Catholic, Baptist, sundry Protestant denominations, probably (guessing here) Orthodox churches (Russian, Greek, Ethiopian, Armenian, etc. varieties). Only seventh-day adventists, for a marginally mainstream group, seem to use Saturday. Furthermore, their name gives a hint that it is standard for Christians to use Sunday as the Sabbath, as they set themselves apart by calling themselves seventh-day (Saturday) adventists.
I live in Indy and am familiar with the case.
I am not a member of this denomination or congregation and have no axe to grind.
The "admission" this "greedy" church was going to charge was a nomial amount to cover the cost of snacks.
The game was to be preceded by a video of Christian testimony from coaches Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith about how God has influenced their lives.
That raises an interesting question. What activities, that are licit on other days, would detract from the holiness of the Sabbath? Do parishioners have to just sit around all day in contemplative meditation, or is it permissible to go do something like take in a movie, rock climb, skeet shoot, kickbox, have sex, or even (gag me) breakdance?
Maybe they should move the venue to a Zion AME based church. THEN see the NFL shut up and back off.
Other freepers out there: have you heard of Sunday being referred to as the Sabbath by Christians?
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