Our church every year has a Super Bowl party as do probably thousands of churches across the country. It involves maybe 20-30 teens and a few parents. They have a great time doing a devo at halftime. I read this today from CitizenLink News in Focus and was pretty shocked to see that there is a copyright law on the words "Super Bowl." I guess the word is getting out. Have you heard anything about this? Maybe we should come up with another term then. But what could we call it? Here's the story:
Super Bowl parties getting the message.
Fall Creek Baptist Church in Indianapolis was forced to punt Sunday, cancelling a Super Bowl extravaganza with the game playing on big screens.
The reason, according to Pastor John Newland, was that the National Football League (NFL) had contacted the church a few days prior to the event and told them to "cease and desist."
"They said we were in violation of the copyright law by hosting a Super Bowl party, because we were going to use the term 'Super Bowl' and were going to charge for the cost of food at the event," Newland told CitizenLink.
Newland said he immediately sent a note back to the NFL, apologizing for the apparent violation and promising not to charge for the event and drop the reference to the "Super Bowl" -- if the church could still project the game large enough for people to watch.
"The NFL e-mailed us back and said we were still in violation because we intended to show the game on a TV larger than 55 inches in diameter," Newland said. "We protested and said that there are sports bars all over America that are showing the game, why should we be penalized?"
But the pleas fell on deaf ears.
"We just decided to pull the plug on it," Newland said.
The NFL did not return calls from CitizenLink, but an Associated Press story quoted an NFL spokesman, Greg Aiello, as saying it is the league's long-standing policy to ban "mass out-of-home viewing" of the Super Bowl. The league makes an exception for sports bars and other businesses that show televised sports as a part of everyday operations.
Newland, meanwhile, said lawmakers in several states have indicated they may raise the issue on behalf of churches before the next Super Bowl. For Fall Creek, the incident was an eye-opener.
"We look at this as a 'God opportunity,' " Newland said. "One of the things we realized was that ignorance of the law is no excuse. We need to be better informed as a congregation of what laws might affect us -- and not just assume things."
The pastor, meanwhile, said the church will figure out a creative -- and legal -- way to conduct an event next year. After all, it wasn't just a party -- it was an evangelistic outreach.
"If our intention was just to have a good time watching a football game, we wouldn't even have thought about arguing whether the NFL has the right to limit our ability to view the program," Newland said.