Awana

[Yerusalyim]

I’m familiar with AWANA’s from my time as a Chaplain Assistant in the military. I’d NOT send my child…and explain it frankly to your daughter and the parents of the child making the invite. “Thank you, it’s kind and generous, but we have our own church and our own faith and it might prove problematic.”

Starting some type of youth club at your local parish might not be a bad idea. We Catholics don’t do enough for the youth.

 

[Dave_Noonan]

I enjoyed AWANA–Cat had a good point about it being good for homeschoolers, at least in my case.

But I frequently got into theological arguments with the leaders (my background is Wesleyan and we didn’t agree with a lot of the presuppositions behind the program). I can see how some kids, particularly given the much greater dissonance between Catholicism and AWANA theology, would be really confused by what is essentially fundamentalist propaganda. The Bible memorization, which is the heart of the program (the “sports” element, while valuable for me because I didn’t get it anywhere else, is really just there to lure kids in), consists of isolated prooftexts which are so arranged as to support Baptist/fundamentalist theology.

Very accurate description. I recall that churches who offer the program must agree to take some sort of pledge regarding “eternal security” (once saved, always saved), a theological stance that was/is controversial for some churches.

 

[Zooey]

My wife and I used to be leaders in the Awana club back in my fundamentalist days.
Let me say up front that if you want your child to remain Catholic, DO NOT send them to Awana.
The purpose of the “club” is to force children to recite the “sinners prayer” and memorize Scripture passages with no purpose OTHER than indocrination. The beanbag games are silly, the “prizes” the kids get (for memorization) don’t amount to much.
It is also a very expensive program for a local church. The leaders of Awana reap in a lot of cash with all their accessories that go along with club membership.

This.

Keep your kids FAR away from Awana. It is anti-Catholic and your child will be proselytized to. Even if you happen to get in with a group that is not overtly anti-Catholic, they teach a very fundamentalist version of Christianity and she will be taught things that conflict with the Catholic Church such as “once saved, always saved” etc.

Stay away.

Start a Catholic group.

And this.

Honestly, I wouldn’t advise anyone to become involved in Awana. Regardless of religious affiliation, there is just too much pushing stuff down the throats of kids too young to realize the confusion they are going to experience.