[Infowarrior] - NFL Pulls Plug On Big-Screen Church Parties For Super Bowl

[Richard Forno]

More NFL lunacy................rf


NFL Pulls Plug On Big-Screen Church Parties For Super Bowl
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/31/AR2008013103
958_pf.html

By Jacqueline L. Salmon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 1, 2008; A01

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.

Ministers are not happy.

"There is a part of me that says, 'Gee, doesn't the NFL have enough money
already?'" said Steve Holley, Immanuel's executive pastor. He pointed out
that bars are still allowed to air the game on big-screens TV sets. "It just
doesn't make sense."

The Super Bowl, the most secular of American holidays, has long been popular
among churches. With parties, prayer and Christian DVDs replacing the
occasionally racy halftime shows, churches use the event as a way to reach
members, and potential new members, in a non-churchlike atmosphere.

"It takes people who are not coming frequently, or who have fallen away, and
shows them that the church can still have some fun," said the Rev. Thomas
Omholt, senior pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in the District. Omholt
has hosted a Super Bowl party for young adults in his home for 20 years. "We
can be a little less formal."

The NFL said, however, that the copyright law on its games is long-standing
and the language read at the end of each game is well known: "This telecast
is copyrighted by the NFL for the private use of our audience. Any other use
of this telecast or any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of the game
without the NFL's consent is prohibited."

The league bans public exhibitions of its games on TV sets or screens larger
than 55 inches because smaller sets limit the audience size. The section of
federal copyright law giving the NFL protection over the content of its
programming exempts sports bars, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said.

The issue came to a head last year after the NFL sent a letter to Fall Creek
Baptist Church in Indianapolis, warning the church not show the Super Bowl
on a giant video screen. For years, the church had held a Super Bowl party
in its auditorium, attracting about 400 people and showing the game on a big
screen usually reserved for hymn lyrics.

The letter "was really a disturbing thing," said Marlene Broome, a
spokeswoman for the church.

The church canceled last year's party. This year, its adult Sunday school
classes are having parties in homes, but Broome said church members miss the
big gatherings. "Everybody really had a good time," she said.

Large Super Bowl gatherings around big-screen sets outside of homes shrink
TV ratings and can affect advertising revenue, McCarthy said. "We have no
objection to churches and others hosting Super Bowl parties as long as they
. . . show the game on a television of the type commonly used at home," he
said. "It is a matter of copyright law."

The same policy applies to all NFL games and to movie theaters, large halls
and other venues with big-screen TVs, he said.

The policy has prompted some drastic downscaling. Last year, Vienna
Presbyterian Church planned a party in its fellowship hall for its middle
school and high school students, airing the game on its 12-foot video
screen. Church leaders had hoped to use the game to draw in the teenagers,
often a tough crowd to get through church doors.

"We thought we had found our magic bullet," said Barb Jones, the church's
director of communication. The event was canceled, however, after the church
heard about the Indianapolis case.

This year, Vienna Presbyterian plans a party for teenagers in its basement,
showing the game on smaller TV sets.

Like other churches, Vienna Presbyterian will not charge admission to view
the game, and it will not use the event as a fundraiser. In a testimony to
the drawing power of the Super Bowl, churches do not use the Academy Awards
or other high-rated televised events to evangelize.

To avoid attracting the ire of the NFL, some churches are even giving Super
Bowl parties a more generic name. Broadfording Bible Brethren Church in
Hagerstown will call its annual event the "Big Game Party."

The church still plans to show the game on its jumbo-size screen near the
pulpit in its sanctuary. Pastor Bill Wyand said he has heard secondhand
about the policy and is not sure whether screening the game via the church's
video-projector system violates NFL policy. Still, he is looking nervously
over his shoulder.

On the legal flip side, the NFL's big-screen ban could end up landing the
league in trouble.

John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, a Charlottesville
civil liberties group that focuses on religious freedom issues, is
threatening to sue the NFL on behalf of an Alabama church that wants to host
a big-screen Super Bowl party. He is also seeking sponsors for federal
legislation to exempt churches from the ban.

"It's ridiculous," Whitehead said. "You can go into these stores now and buy
100-inch screens. The law is just outdated."