UPDATED 11/23/16, 2:15 p.m. ET:
The Friendship-West Baptist Church has released a statement and revealed that the Cowboys game was not shown during a service as originally reported. Rather, it was shown in between a service and another event held at the church on Sunday afternoon. You can read the statement here:
See original story below.
Sunday is a holy day for Christians to worship and praise to the Lord. But if you're in Dallas, it's a day to keep track of Cowboys game score no matter where you are, and that includes church.
The kickoff for today's Ravens-Cowboys game was at 1 p.m. ET, but Dallas is located within the Central Time zone. Therefore, the 12 p.m. kickoff coincided with the time of this Dallas, Texas church service. Since the Cowboys have the league's best record (9-1), someone in this church's clergy thought that instead of people sneaking peeks at their smartphones while sitting in the pews, why not just have them look up at a big screen behind the pulpit to show the game? Great idea for the service's attendants who may have nodded off to sleep during the sermon without the game on display.
If you know anything about the way of life in the Bible Belt, football is exalted by southerners as more than just a game— it's a sacred pastime. To that extent, there is nothing that should stand in the way of devoted Christian and Cowboys fan to see America's Team trample over the Ravens 27-17 for their ninth straight victory.
So you can only imagine how many people were screaming and yelling, randomly jumping up while singing and hand-clapping took place during big plays, as the preacher roused up the congregation ("Can I get an AMEN?" *Touchdown, Cowboys* "YES, LAWD!").
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