Haste The Day: Hilarious Hypocrites

Posted by pixie | Filed under Uncategorized

I have to thank this band for making me laugh, because I am in the most depressive mood imaginable, and this post they made about asking guitarist Jason Barnes to leave the band — because he woke up and decided there was no Jesus or God.

Christian “punk” bands, is there anything they can’t do? They brought a smile to my face with their really fake “we’re so sorry we had to kick our friend out of the band” post that also includes how much they miss him, and how they don’t cast judgment on those who don’t believe. Sure, that sounds nice, but I have to think that kicking your guitarist out of the band for having different views that are more atheist in nature is rather judgmental. It’s more than that: it’s asinine. The part about asking for prayers for themselves and the poor atheist, Jason, is also pretty hilarious.

How the hell do young people get this insane, anyway?

Here’s their post:

This is going to come as a shock to many of you. After much prayer and thought given to the matter, we asked Jason Barnes to step down from his involvement with Haste the Day. For a while Jason has been searching and searching for real meaning in his existence. After several months of reading literature and talking with friends, Jason had determined that he felt there was no God and certainly no Jesus. We as a band do not have problem with those that do not believe in Jesus, nor do we cast judgement on those that do not believe in Jesus. We just want to love on people like Jesus would and hopefully share a little bit about what he’s done and doing in our lives.

We would call ourselves a Christian band and for that reason, we felt we couldn’t have someone in the band who didn’t agree with the band’s foundational drive. Jason’s new found disbelief in what the rest of us have committed our lives to began to cause disunity within the band and as a result, we prayed and talked about it and felt like God was saying it wasn’t time for Haste the Day to come to an end. Thusly, We asked Jason to leave.

We love Jason and it pains us all to not be on the road with one of our closest friends. It has also been a miserable experience for Jason to not be a part of something that he has been a part of for so long. We are all working on mending the tear in our relationship with Jason and are hoping to be able to continue to call him friend. We will not be replacing Jason with a new guitar player. Our friend, Dave Krysl, will be our full time touring guitar player. The four of us (Stephen, Devin, Brennan, Michael) all wrote our new album which will be called “Dreamer.”
We appreciate all the thoughts and prayers you can send toward us and Jason. Thanks for listening and as always, we will see you on the road!

No judgment there, right? They’re “hoping to continue to call him a friend.” I wonder if I Am Ghost needs another guitarist in the mix — they’re a band that managed to shake loose their Christian nutters and come back better than ever — maybe Jason would fit in with those guys.

It’s always bugged me that these guys were hardcore Christian asshats… I really like their sound and thought their last album cover was really gorgeous. Anyway, good luck to Jason… he’s a talented guitarist… I’m sure he can find a band to make music with, without having to cater to an invisible man in the sky’s whims, as interpreted by his bandmates.

Because let’s be honest — most atheists really don’t care what other people believe. There isn’t an “atheist agenda” or an “atheist coalition” that attempts to dictate morals for other people. They don’t try to convert people. They’re not bad people — they still have ethical codes and try to be good people. They just do it on their own terms, for the sake of being good, rather than for some shot at a heaven or impressing a God.

It all just seems so silly. It’s 2008 — why are people still bickering about this stuff? And how could a band kick out their “best friend” and pretend to be bummed about it, when they did it simply because prayer told them that was the right decision?

Crazy.