Dopers' Opinions of AWANA?

In My Humble Opinion
1

One of my eldest daughter’s friends is a regular at local AWANA meetings, and my daughter recently went along to a couple of them. She’s enjoyed them, for the most part, and we’ve talked about it quite a bit. She’d like to become a “regular” herself, and I’m mostly OK with it, but I have some hesitation.

I’m an atheist (though not a militant one), and my wife is agnostic. Though we don’t have anything specifically against Christianity or any religions, previous experiences with some particulary devout Christians have left us… cautious.

We don’t want our beliefs to restrict those of our childrens’ however, and if our daughter is interested in joining a Christian organization, we’ll support her. It is in the interest of that support that I’m asking this question.

To be fair, most of the activities at AWANA seem innocuous from what my daughter has told me. Playing games and such. There are some religious activities as well, from what I understand, including a contest for memorizing Bible verses and a video which had some Christian themes. Again, no big deal… Hey, I’ve read the Bible and it didn’t warp me too much. (Yes, I’m kidding… it actually warped me a great deal. :wink: )

However, just as my wife and I endeavor not to influence our kids with our beliefs (or at least, to limit that influence as much as possible), we try to avoid undue influences regarding other beliefs as well. To put it simply, we want our daughters to make up their own minds about what they believe.

Which is why some of the propaganda (I can think of no other word) I’m seeing from Awana bothers me. For example, from the website:

Also, from some papers our daughter brought home last night: “Our Baptist Children’s Ministries are all about Bringing Children to Christ!” The enrollment form mentions a “Truth and Training Club” and an “Ultimate Adventure” book, both of which set off my Spidey-Sense a bit… sure enough, “Truth and Training” is exactly what I thought, as a little research found “We want our Awana clubbers to know the truth of God’s Word, and we want to train them to serve Him in their everyday lives.” The Ulitmate Adventure books are a series of handbooks, which are written to support the “Truth and Training” program.

OK, so this seems like an organization which seems to want to “train” my daughter to follow generalized Christian beliefs. To be honest, this sets my hackles up a bit – my daughters’ beliefs should not be “trained” into them; they should be arrived at as they are comfortable with them. Training is something you do with a child to get them to use the toilet, or buckle their seatbelts, or to look both ways before crossing the street… to me, a personal belief system cannot and should not be “trained” behavior.

OK, so you know where I stand – however, I do also have an open mind on the subject, and I have not made a decision yet. What I’d like to know is this: have other Dopers attended AWANA meetings? What have your experiences been? And, if you don’t mind sharing, what are your religious beliefs? Does AWANA do anything which conflicts with what you believe, and if so, do you have a problem with it? Did you see a lot of Christian propaganda there? Did you get the sense that they were trying to “convert” the children? Or was it all rather harmless fun?

Before I make a decision regarding whether my daughter will continue going to AWANA, I also plan to make a visit to a meeting myself. However, I’d like others’ opinions on what they experienced there, as it will help inform my decision.

Thanks…

2

Sorry to be brief but I find it disturbing.

3

How old is the daughter? Have you explained to her what you and the wife believe and why?

4

I was in a relationship with a woman and she sent her 10 yr. old to AWANAs meetings. :eek:

Bad juju! They brainwash kiddies and try to turn them into fundies. Be afraid. Be very afraid. “Train to serve, train to serve!” :eek:

I think your Spidey-sense is right on.

5

My son was a member for some years, and I helped out with meetings and so forth occasionally. (He joined of his own initiative, because some of his good buddies were members.) He enjoyed it until he got older than their age limit, and other activities crowded it out.

I don’t know what I can tell you apart from what you saw on the website and in the literature. They mean what they say. It is an evangelistic effort aimed at kids. Very similar to what I experienced in Sunday School - games, arts and crafts, and instruction in the Christian faith. Our AWANA group was non-denominational Christian, which is/was very close to Southern Baptist.

AWANA did not teach anything with which I disagreed (I am a practicing Christian - a Lutheran). But it is indeed Christian.

If you are worried about your child being proselytized, yes, that will indeed happen. If that goes beyond what you are willing to allow for your children, be aware that I doubt they will agree to accept your child but not try to teach them the essence of the Christian faith as they see it. If you want to prevent your child from being witnessed to, then I suspect you will have to forbid your child to attend.

A visit is wise. I suspect you will see exactly what they make it clear will happen. It is a Christian organization.

Regards,
Shodan

6

I went to Awana for a couple years during my Jr. High years (10 or so years ago). I think it may depend on the individual chapters, with regard to how much they try to indoctrinate you. My parents were Christians (not fundamentalist at all) and they sometimes disagreed with how things were presented, but overall I think most of it was pretty harmless. I’m an agnostic now, but I don’t resent anything Awana tried to do. You memorize Bible verses, play games and listen to people talk about Christianity in simplistic terms. I only went because I liked playing the games and I was great at memorizing things.

The leaders were usually just dads, but I wish some of them were better male role models. Some of them were weak guys I just couldn’t respect.

Overall, I’d say Awana is harmless, it’s certainly nothing worse than any other youth group.

7

Our youngest daughter was invited by her best pal to accompany her to her AWANAs meetings and we let her go 3 or 4 times. However, we have of late been encouraging them to find other activities to do together–we’ve been “busy” on Wednesday nights suddenly.
I was uncomfortable with sending an impressionable child to attend what is basically a religion class for a faith that we don’t share. I mean, that IS the stated purpose of this group–to indoctrinate children into a rather fundamental Christian faith. Our local group is sponsored by the Baptist church, and while I have nothing against the Baptists, our family is not of that faith. I wouldn’t expect them to send their daughter to OUR church’s religion classes, so why would I send my daughter to theirs?
Also, there seemed to be a strong push on the AWANA leadership’s part to forcefully encourage their students to bring a friend. My daughter’s friend would get very upset if Little Rich couldn’t go, as that would mean that she wouldn’t get her jewel–to the point of tears. Now, I’m all for ecumenism and all that, but that didn’t sit well with me…“If you don’t bring a friend, you won’t get any jewels” Shouldn’t your program be fun & enriching enough that you don’t need to force witnessing on kids?

8

I’m a protestant Christian.

I was in AWANA for many years (but this was 15-20 years ago, some things have changed since then, I’m sure). And I thought it was a great program.

But it was a Christian religious education program. The primary focus then was on memorizing Bible verses, followed by instruction in Christian religious principles, and after that Christian fellowship. It was a religious organization, then (and I don’t know about now); they certainly never tried to hide that. It was religious in nature, almost like a very intense Sunday school (except it was midweek and there was more running), not like Girl Scouts (which was then a more or less non-religious organization).

Should you let your daughter go? I don’t know - would you let her go to church and sunday school every week?

There was, for a while, a doper who was an AWANA leader - but I’m not sure if that person is still on the boards.

9

Thanks to everyone who responded so far… some good answers from all across the spectrum, but all saying about the same thing, which works for me.

ShibbOleth, to answer your question, she is 11. We have talked to her somewhat about what we believe, but we have tried very hard not to influence what she wants to believe in… as much as that is possible anyway. We must have had some success if she’s interested in a Christian organization. :wink:

CRich, I found a similar thing regarding the encouragement of AWANA kids to bring friends. I forgot to mention it, but my daughter told me that “new visitors” get candy when they come, as does the member child who brought them. I found that… rather interesting too. And slightly disturbing, just because it seems to border on recruitment.

Looks like I’ll be making that visit myself next week… if anyone else has input, I’d love to hear it.

10

I’ve helped teach our church’s AWANA program. It’s nothing to be afraid of. Yes, there is evangelizing. That what a Christian church does, but it’s not like Rasputin teaches each and every class. It’s just some dad or mom helping the church and reading bible stories and playing a veggie-tails video.

There’s games and snacks and good clean fun.

Great idea to show up and watch.

It’s OK to let your child make up her own mind and have some fun. My mom did it for me and I turned out to be a Republican and a Christian (that showed 'er!) :smiley:

11

I have no experience whatsoever with AWANA, and only heard of it a year or so ago. We have something vaguely similar in our church, though. And if it were my daughters being invited to AWANA meetings, and assuming they’re at least 8 years old, here’s what I’d do.

a) Visit at least once, making sure I liked the atmosphere and people.

b) Let them go every so often, but probably not every week. We would have to talk about the implications of becoming a serious member of a group that is expressly about a religion we don’t actually belong to. Besides which it might be too much time.

c) Talk a lot about the beliefs discussed at the meetings, how they differ from our own, and what the kids think of it all.

I did a lot of visiting around as a kid with friends, and I think I learned a lot. I wasn’t particularly susceptible to wanting to join the churches–I knew pretty well what I thought, and I had some pretty strong opinions about the churches I visited. I did want to become a Missionette, which I think is kind of a girl’s club like AWANA, but that only lasted until I figured out that it wasn’t the same as Girl Scouts.

Probably not too helpful, but there you go anyhow.

12

I second the notion of taking the time to visit an AWANA meeting yourself and also discussing the views and beliefs they teach with your child. It will show your child that you take an active interest in what she’s doing there, plus it will give you a great chance to teach her how to be an independent thinker and make choices for herself based on the facts.

13

My stars, what were these permissive parents thinking?!? Next you’ll be saying that you’re a Yankee fan too.

Why does no one think of the children?

Actually, I was raised with the tacit but definite idea that Republicans and the Yankees were the AntiChrist (not that we were particularly Christian). Guess it worked, as I’m 48 and still pretty much feel the same way! :smiley:

14

When did I start posting as micahjn? In other words, what he said. They try to make you memorize verses but unlike micahjn I am horrible at it. I think I just went for the basketball.

15

It doesn’t border on recruitment, it IS recruitment. What I find funny is that you find it disturbing. Is this news, that religions think their beliefs are important enough to evangelize and recruit new members?

16

Speaking only for myself, I was expecting them to provide some fun time with a good deal of religious teaching and probably some encouragement for the kids to “come & bring a friend!” What I was uncomfortable with was this pressure on the kids to bring someone–we don’t care who, just some other godless heathen kid. And if you don’t bring someone, YOU don’t get your JEWEL!! These jewels (little plastic fake thingies) go on their crown badges–an idea kind of like Girl Scout badges, only the Girl Scouts never held me to any recruiting quotas.

So, yes, I expected some preaching and “encouragement” to adopt their beliefs, but I was uncomfortable with the high pressure used-car-type sales tactics. We were okay with letting Little Rich go along a few times so that she could see other churches and how they act on their beliefs, but I’m really uncomfortable with “if your child doesn’t go, your neighbor’s child will be penalized.” That doesn’t sound like evangelization, that sounds like extortion.