AmericanPapist Comments
Unfortunately, it isn't as simple as not charging admission. There are churches with legal action against them who never charged admission.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp...ml?
nav=hcmodule
Thx, that's different, for sure.
I saw an article about this today, and apparently the problem is the use of a very large screen to show the game at a gathering, even if no fee is charged.
Some churches have apparently responded to this by having several "normal" television sets spread throughout their function hall, so that people can watch the game together, just not an a gigantic screen.
Here's a suggestion.
There are undoubtedly some very devout owners in the NFL (the Rooneys in Pittsburgh, for one). There has to be some way to move these owners to get the league to give an exception for churches that want to throw such parties every year for the big game.
Maybe the league could come up with some sort of token "rights fee" that would be charged to these church groups, but which would then be donated by the league to charity, or even donated back to the churches' own charitable programs.
The idea of a church throwing a Super Bowl party seems very strange to me, to be honest. I don't see what the Super Bowl has to do with Christ, and as for the new converts argument - you could argue that for pretty much any kind of activity. I think it'd be best if individual parishioners threw their Super Bowl parties in their homes and advertised them in the church, or something similar to that.
The NFL is nuts when it comes to this sort of thing. There should be no "rights fee" because it's a ridiculous thing to have to pay for. The NFL has no such right. Problem is, as a Church, you don't want to be dragged into a large legal battle over the issue.
And it's got nothing to do with Churches in particular. If you have a TV set at home that's larger than 55" and you're having a "public" gather (advertised in a Church might qualify), presumably you'd be subject to the same idiocy.
Best summary:
http://techdirt.com/articles/
200...164154153.shtml
So much for the conservative alliance of big business and religion.
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