In January 2019, a website called the Babylon Bee published a story entitled, “Awana Approves Game Floor Wagering“. The article starts off by saying, “The game floor at Awana is about to get a lot more interesting. In an effort to encourage more parental participation, leaders at the Christian kids club have decided to allow gambling on the outcome of the students’ games and races.” I have received a few queries as to whether this is actually true or not and so I decided to address it in this forum.
The Babylon Bee clearly states on the bottom of its website that “The Babylon Bee is Your Trusted Source For Christian News Satire“.
Satire is defined as, “the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.”
The 
Babylon Bee is truly what many proclaim main stream media to be. The Babylon Bee is Fake News. They even sell a t-shirt proclaiming that very fact.
In this case, the Babylon Bee took an initiative that has been allowed by the Supreme Court in a ruling in May 2018, allowing sports wagering in all states, and applied it to a well known sporting activity by a ministry, AwanaGames. It was also published at a time when many Awana clubs are preparing to participate in AwanaGames.
There is no truth to the article. Awana has not approved Game Floor wagering and there are no plans to do so as it would be diametrically opposed to the main purpose of the event which is to present the Gospel to people who may not enter a church to hear it, but may attend a child’s event. Awana also no longer organizes and runs games. Awana has passed this on to the local church to host and run so the basic “facts” of the article are not accurate.
The Babylon Bee has referenced Awana several times over the years. Do a simple search of Awana on the Babylon Bee website and you will see articles like the following:
- Awana Olympian Disqualified After Testing Positive For Mountain Dew
- Man Denied Entrance To Heaven Due To Spotty Awana Credentials
- Local Family Frantically Memorizes Bible Verses On Way To Awana
- Child Who Has All 807 Pokemon Memorized Having Trouble Reciting Awana Verse
- Defiant Youngster Remains Seated For Awana Pledge
- Ford Introduces 40-Passenger Van: ‘The Homeschooler’
- 23 Christian Movies That NEED To Be Made (look at #16)
You will see good natured humor (some hits close to home) in each article not meant to be detrimental to Awana and each story is fabricated by the author.
Rest assured that Awana has not gone astray. It has remained true to its purpose. To reach boys and girls with the Gospel of Christ and train them to serve Him.
I hope that this eliminates any concerns people may have regarding Awana and the article on the Babylon Bee.
On a side note, for those wondering, I am not aware of any articles on the Babylon Bee that reference Commander Bill. 😉
Hang in there, Bill! I’m sure the Babylon Bee will get you in an article before too much longer! 🙂