Football….. A Disturbing Thing

A couple of years ago Churches across the country received an unusual notice from of all people the NFL.  The message had nothing to do with spiritual concerns, but financial ones.  They announced a new playbook regarding the broadcast of their games most specifically, the SUPER BOWL.  In order to project the Super Bowl game on churches big screens, the congregations would be required to purchase expensive licenses,  otherwise they must settle for a screen size smaller than 55 inches……..  and a cry went out!!  The Fall Creek Church was one of the first to receive a notice.  Through their spokeswoman Marlene Broome, the church said the letter was “really a disturbing thing.”

Hmmmm… really “a disturbing thing”?  There are plenty of “disturbing things in this world, child trafficking, abortion of the unborn, abuse and murder of the innocent, a lost generation of American young people, loss of biblical based morality in the public arena, we could go on and on,  and we go and choose a football game to get all agitated about.

The outrage among American Churches was such that it took only 13 months—this is “lightning speed” in the world of copyright deliberations—to render a positive solution.  Thanks to bipartisan action in the U.S. Senate last winter, churches will be allowed to legally show Super Bowl 2009 in their facilities. Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Arlen Specter (D-PA) brandished enough political ire to elicit a favorable response on Feb. 19, 2008 from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell that will now allow churches to legally host this year’s Super Bowl events.

I wonder what the call on the field might be if we were to put this play up for review in THE booth with our heavenly father.  Would we be proud to say that in a world where the Church is sliding toward obscurity, we held the line on a football game?