The NFL is telling churches they are no longer allowed to show the Superbowl on big screens in their sanctuary.

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.

The issue here is that when lots of people watch the game on a big screen, then there are fewer people watching them on TV's. And Nielsen measures TV sets not people. Which is really a problem with how ratings are measured, not with churches.

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."

It's also a matter of money. The NFL should look at the record industry to see how succuessful it is to attack your fans. And I don't understand why bars are allowed to show the games on huge TV screens and churches are not. I'm betting this rule is changed next year.

Oh, and who do you think wins on Sunday? I'm pulling for Eli.

After much prayer and thought,

I have decided to withdraw my application for City Bible’s logo from the US Patent and Trademark Office. Because while I enjoyed myself immensely thinking about owning the logo, in reality it is not mine. I did not pay for it, and I did not ask someone else to copy NBC’s logo and give it to me as my own.   As I can tell from the IP addresses commenting on our blog, City Bible employees and students, are some of our most faithful readers. (Thank you) And since you are reading, I just want you to know, the logo is yours. I wish you the best. You can use it for your new magazine and website.  You can use it to convince other people to give you money. And most importantly, you can use it to manipulate others into staying at your church.  All those neat flashing colors are so hypontic.  And to cheer me up, I am posting this extra picture of Rachel Bilson. No real reason, other than it makes me smile.  I may try to trademark it as my own logo… ..we’ll see how it goes.

We got a late entry for the logo contest; a kind of before and after logo.

Before I tithed:

After I tithed:

Here is your logo contest. 

Because of the huge response we recieved I’ve decided to create 2 different catagories: Logo’s and Poster Boys.

The first catagory is Logo’s, and out of all the logo’s we recieved these are the best. Please vote on your favorite. 

Ok I’m not sure why we got sent these first two. They don’t look much different then the one we already have. Besides, I’m sure City Bible Church isn’t interested in hearing from MSN’s or NBC’s lawyers.

 #1: MSN as CBC

#2: NBC as CBC

This next one is classic because of it’s name. Who doesn’t want to know this guy?

 #3: 1970’s Frank

And finally we have…

#4: CBC Latte

Thank you all for sending in your logo’s. We recieved a lot of logos that weren’t "mature" enoughfor publication (read: I don’t want to get sued), but thank you all for the laugh’s.

 On to catagory 2, the Poster Boy (or girl). We have 3 choices to vote on, let’s get it started.

These next two have nothing to do with CBC but…

…I’m in love with this girl, are you? 

#5: Morton Salt (The Morton’s really are the salt of the earth)

Ok, so my son Aiden spends a little to much time watching the Spiderman Dancing clip. What can I do?

 #6 Spider Aiden

 And here we have everyone’s poster child…

#7: I TITHE

Send in your votes for both Logo and Poster Child. The winner gets a blessing from God and we all know how important that is.

The Big Bible Logo Battle continues…the scorecards are in and WE won round 1 (My letter was way better than theirs), but don’t start celebrating yet. There are still 11 rounds to go.

I really hate to see our two churches fighting over something as silly as a logo. That is why I have decided to hold a UNITY Contest. We shall now begin the CITY "B" CHURCHES LOGO CONTEST.  The winning entry will be used by the church who loses the rights to our current logo.

Here are the rules:

You must create an original logo* which properly reflects the image of both churchs. The logo must be emailed to tightingisgood@citybusinesschurch.org. This contest is open to both members of City Business Church and City Bible Church. The winner shall receive the standard "Blessing from God" prize given by CBC.

To get things started I shall submit the first entry:

With great pride I give you:    

Here is the letter I received from CBC’s lawyers, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP:

 (Click the image to open in a new window)

And here is my response:

(Click the image to open in a new window)

Here is an interesting link that was sent to me by a friend of the blog.

Question: When is parody protected from a charge of trademark infringement?

Answer: Parody is a usage of a mark that pokes fun at the mark and does not confuse the public as to the source of the usage. In determining whether there is infringement the court balances the public interest in free expression against the public interest in avoiding consumer confusion. "A parody must convey two simultaneous–and contradictory messages; that it is the original, but also that it is not the original and is instead a parody. To the extent that it does only the former but not the latter, it is not only a poor parody but also vulnerable under trademark law, since the consumer will be confused." From Cliffs NOtes, Inc. v. Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, 886 F. 2d 490 (2d Cir. 1989)

Let me know if someone accidentally tithes to our site instead of City Bible’s.

We are still trying to find a way to post the letter from Davis Wright Tremaine. We will also be posting JP’s letter in response. However, it is proving to be a little more difficult than imagined. Nevertheless, the letter is coming… trust us, the letter is coming.

In the meantime, there were a couple of interesting comments I thought would make for a good post. One individual posted Romans 8:1 "There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus" and closed with this comment:

May you be lifted up from unprofitable endevors to the hights of knowing Christ and His love and proclaim and defend the gospel of Christ and His grace.

Which was followed by a comment from another elusive Anonymous:

I read the blog, I like a lot of it. I dislike a lot. But thanks to the Anonymous that post the thoughts about Christ and how lovely and wonderful He is. The new logo is so fitting for CBC. It’s not that they don’t love God or that they don’t love the things of God, they just make financial gain the first love, the first teaching , the first tithe……

I have never denied that City Bible does good. I have just always argued that what little good they do is overshadowed by the harm they cause to their members and to the Christian Community as a whole.

So let me ask, "Does City Bible’s good outweigh their harm? Does CBC do so much good that we should not point out the flaws in their preaching and actions?" 

If you have been paying close attention, you may have noticed that there is a bit of a logo battle brewing between City Business and City Bible.

See, when this new blog site initially started, we took the logo from City Bible’s website, just to give our site a little more color and flair, believing that imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery.

And while we questioned the legality of this, we also carefully reviewed City Bible’s website and failed to see any trademark insignia around their logo. We also mentioned this lack of a trademark several times on our blog.  

Oddly enough, a couple of days ago, City Bible put a small TM near the bottom corner of their logo. This naturally caused us some alarm. We had not seen this before. And in the interest of fairness, we added a small TM to the bottom of our logo as well.

I was also a little skeptical and took it upon myself to do some research. Just because you put a tiny TM next to your logo, does not necessarily mean your logo is trademarked.

I performed a fairly exhaustive search on the US Patent and Trademark Office website, looking for City Bible’s name or logo, and I was unable to find City Bible anywhere on the site. Not wanting this fabulous logo to fall into the wrong hands, I promptly sent off my own application, claiming a trademark for this beautiful colorful logo.

The results are still pending, and I will not know for a while whether my application is approved. However, in the meantime, I would like City Bible to know that I respect their need to use the logo, and I will be happy to let them continue to keep it on their website for a small fee, or a tithe, if you will.

I have also taken the liberty of searching other logo’s for City Bible to use, in the off chance they do not want to pay me:

Here is the best one I have found.

I believe this logo truly captures the essence and sprit of City Bible Church. An insignia that screams Faith, Love and Giving, without so much as saying a word.