Updated Monday, Feb. 25, 2008

NFL gives in to churches

By Norman Jameson

BR Editor

A recent decision by the National Football League means churches in the future will be able to freely gather around the flickering hearth and use the Super Bowl as a focal point for an annual outreach.

The NFL relented from its ridiculous ban on showing its premier game on large screens outside of bars. Now football crazy Christians can incorporate the game into their schedule just like football crazy bar patrons.

Churches long ago quit fighting the magnetic allure of the Super Bowl on Sunday night. Then they figured out a way to incorporate the Super Bowl as an outreach tool, showing it on a big screen in a large viewing and gathering area unique to churches and Moose Lodges. You've got the best elements: a big screen, food, gathered friends and an interminable halftime show you can easily turn off to present something about your church or the Messiah it serves.

In 2007 the NFL warned Fall Creek Baptist Church in Indianapolis not to hold a Super Bowl viewing party for a couple reasons. It was going to be shown on a screen bigger than the 55 inches allowed by the rules that govern NFL copyright and broadcast rights, and the church was going to charge admission to cover snacks.

The NFL previously had said little about or to churches screening the big game. The Fall Creek Church did such a good marketing job - remember their local team won the Super Bowl that year - that their party drew the NFL's attention. Their lawyers thought they should stick their billable hours nose into the church business.

When the NFL made the ban public and loud, suddenly lots of churches that had smaller gatherings and were within the allowable parameters got nervous and pulled the plug on their showtime. Now NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said in a letter to Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch that the league would not object to "live showings - regardless of screen size - of the Super Bowl" by religious organizations, according to The Washington Post.

Prior to the ruling NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said such church gatherings are fine, within the guidelines. Here's a shocker. Aiello said Major League Baseball and the NCAA have similar policies.

So you can't have a World Series game 7 party at your church either if you charge admission or show it on too big of screen. And you can't hold an NCAA Bowl Division National Championship football game event either. Oh, wait. We haven't invented that yet.

But, of course, there is only one Super Bowl that brings the nation to a stop for a few hours. It's the only football game I'll watch even if the Packers aren't playing.

But the refreshing thing is news from around the country, reported by Associated Press, that shows churches that had sponsored Super Bowl parties for years, or had a special event planned last year for the first time, when they learned of the ban they showed respect for the rules and cancelled their plans.

Fall Creek Baptist Church Pastor John Newland was encouraged to hold his party anyway and dare the NFL to sue them. Although he believed the law was wrong and "discriminates against people of faith," he had no intention of breaking the law.

"We have to teach our kids that just because you don't like a law, that doesn't mean you have to break a law," he said.