Posted on 02/01/2008 5:12:40 AM PST by steve-b
For years, as many as 200 members of Immanuel Bible Church and their friends have gathered in the church's fellowship hall to watch the Super Bowl on its six-foot screen. The party featured hard hitting on the TV, plenty of food -- and prayer.
But this year, Immanuel's Super Bowl party is no more. After a crackdown by the National Football League on big-screen Super Bowl gatherings by churches, the Springfield church has sacked its event. Instead, church members will host parties in their homes.
Immanuel is among a number of churches in the Washington area and elsewhere that have been forced to use a new playbook to satisfy the NFL, which said that airing games at churches on large-screen TV sets violates the NFL copyright....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
All the more reason to have a big Super Bowl party -- bring down teh exorbitant rights fees and the obscene ad rates.
In what way? Is it a closed-circuti broadcast? It's on the PUBLIC airwaves. if teh public wants to gather and watch, how dies that violate the NFL's rights?
I don’t see how having the superbowl in church honors Christ.
It’s more like an obscene idol with wicked ads and half time show!
Tell me how this is any different than money changers in the temple that Jesus Christ drove out.
A little bit different thing, as national security in a war was involved.
Geraldo is a lousy journalist, an intolerant buffoon, and an offensive person. He was also associated with teh Young Lords Puerto Rican street gang. Fox should fire him.
He's the reason Michelle Malkin isn't on The O'Reilly Factor anymore. (I have that directly from Michelle; I emailed her to ask why.)
But I don't see what that has to do with the NFL's Supre Bowl policy.
I don't know how much they pay to be able to broadcast the game. But you must know that the bar would be pissed if a church next door was broadcasting it free with a large sign out front WATCH SUPERBOWL FREE HERE.
That's not my problem, is it? The bar can find other ways of drawing people in to their $60 party.
In short, fellowship and community building, as many of us have previously posted.
If you somehow think that that dishonors God, tehn your God is too small.
I thought the settled all this out last year. Their rule is very simple: no charging for anything called a Super Bowl party. But you can have a party to watch “The Big Game” and charge.
The big problem here is that the court have long established that undefended copyrights and logos go away, that’s why Bill Waterson no longer controls Calvin and Hobbes. If the NFL doesn’t defend their territory against all comers, including church groups, then they’ll lose the ability to defend against anybody. Meanwhile everybody needs to learn the rules: Big Game Party is OK, Super Bowl Party is not at least if there’s any form of admission fee including a donation plate.
As I said earlier, wrong thread.
The NFL has made its ruling. Now let it enforce it. We are holding a huge-screen Super Bowl party, and I welcome the NFL to try and stop us.
I’m glad the NFL is doing this. The Super Bowl has no place being shown in church.
Bars are exempted because bars spend a lot of money on their TV hookups, more than regular people would for a similar setup, and a good chunk of that money goes to the leagues. Even then they do have some limits on whether or not they can advertise themselves as a place to watch the Super Bowl (or the NCAA Tournament which is also rigorously defended). If you’ll notice most sports bar advertising generally talks about “the big game”, which works for two reason, it means they don’t have to change the commercial as often, and it keeps them from getting in any trouble with the leagues. You to can charge for a Big Game party, assuming you don’t violate zoning regs of course.
At a business where I used to work, they got a warning letter from the RIAA for playing music on their phone systems for people to listen to while on hold.
My guess is that they are shutting down the church parties so that the broadcast can be more obscene than the Janet Jsckson fiasco. They would call it “edgy”.
Haven’t watched since Janet Jackson, won’t again this year.
I have not read this whole thread, so someone may have posted before me, but I bet the issue is that the church charges an admission fee as a fund raiser. That would be a violation of NFL copyright.
Evangelism is not becoming like the world to attract the world.
What about “be ye separate?”
I’ve been reminded of another reason: in many markets, bar-owners own lots of season tickets. Back in the olden days, the bars couldn’t show the games unless it was sold out (still the case, but these days, most games sell out, right?). So the bars would buy up the season tickets so their customers could watch the game.
This is a worse PR stunt than Ford suing the Ford fan club over the use of its name. PR + Legal = Bozo.
Yeah. It's the equivalent of a groundhog day story. Just hang it on the hook, dust it off every year, change the location, and publish it.
My God is the God of Bible. God isn’t small because He doesn’t accept every form of worldliness.
Ironically, the commissioner is a Republican. His father was a RINO-Liberal Party Senator. His father-in-law was in Bush 41's Cabinet and his wife is with Fox News.
Laura Bush was on Fox & Friends this morning. She said they were having people over to watch the Super Bowl on the White House's large-screen TV.
I wonder if this is against the NFL viewing policy? ; )
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.