Satire

Babylon Bee Threatened With Lawsuit By Awana For Posting ‘Beyond Satire’ Trump Piece

   DailyWire.com
U.S. President Donald Trump poses with a bible outside St. John's Episcopal Church after a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, June 1, 2020. Trump promised a forceful response to violent protests across the country before leaving the White House to visit a church across the street that had been been damaged by fires. Photographer: Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg
Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Popular conservative satirical site Babylon Bee says they’ve been threatened with a lawsuit from Awana over a recent satirical post about President Trump’s religious photo-opping that references the evangelical youth organization.

Trump Shows Off Completed Awana Vest,” reads the title of the satirical piece, posted Tuesday, a day after Trump held up a Bible outside the historic, protester/rioter-burned St. John’s Episcopal Church near the White House. The top image of the Bee’s piece is a photoshopped image of Trump sporting a red Awana Club vest. The satirical piece reads:

WASHINGTON, D.C.—President Trump and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi are firing Bible photo ops back and forth, as you would expect politicians to be doing at a time like this.

But Trump won the contest of Bible knowledge by showing off his completed Awana Sparks vest today. He dusted off the old red vest and solemnly put it on at a rally this morning. The president proved he knows the Bible way better than other politicians by proudly displaying his old Sparks vest complete with awards for Bible memory.

“Skipper, Hiker, Climber: I got all the Bible memory patches,” he said proudly. “I got the gems in those crowns way before all the other kids. Romans, Ephesians, Hezekiah: I know all the books. Many great books; everyone says so.”

Trump also said he won all the relay games during the Awana Olympics every year, taking home the championship for his church. “It really was pretty unfair to the other kids,” he said. “Eventually, they just asked me to sit out so the other kids could have a chance.”

Pelosi tried to show him up with her Timothy Award but onlookers immediately noticed the name on the trophy said “Mike Pence.”

On Wednesday, Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon announced on Twitter that Awana is “threatening to sue us” if they don’t take the story down.

“The chief communications officer at [Awana] is threatening to sue us if we don’t take this down,” Dillon tweeted Wednesday. “The claim is that this article is ‘beyond satire’ — whatever that means — and contains offensive material (an image of the president of the United States).”

In a follow-up post, Dillon highlighted Awana tweeting in response to a 2018 Babylon Bee article that they “always appreciate an entertaining [Awana] feature from [The Babylon Bee” and asked, “What changed?

The answer might have to do with the literally explosive situation regarding the riots that have followed the death of George Floyd.

On Tuesday, the same day the Babylon Bee published their Trump-Awana satirical piece, Awana posted a tweet for calling for justice for Floyd and other African-Americans who have died in police-related or racially charged incidents.

“George, Ahmaud, Breonna, Philando, Tamir, Michael, Eric, Trayvon … Individuals and image-bearers,” the organization tweeted. “Children created for and by God. Now is the time to have a courageous conversation with the children in your life about the violence that is racism and the need for justice.”

The “beyond satire” criticism is reminiscent of left-leaning Snopes’ attempt to “fact-check” the Babylon Bee in 2019.

“We’re not sure if fanning the flames of controversy and muddying the details of a news story classify an article as ‘satire,'” Snopes wrote in the notably fact-light “fact-check” of a Chick-fil-A-themed post. Because of the significant role Snopes has been given by platforms, the Babylon Bee got lawyers involved.

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