Haste the Day kicks out guitarist for questioning existence of God and Jesus; still maintains belief in Santa Claus and Tooth Fairy

Haste The Day has parted ways with guitar player Jason Barnes over his lack of religious beliefs. Is this the first time a metal band has ousted a member for this reason? I guess it was bound to happen with all the religious metal bands out there. I love the part in the bands statement below, "We as a band do not have problem with those that do not believe in Jesus, nor do we cast judgment on those that do not believe in Jesus." Isn't kicking him out of the band basically casting judgment? Religious people are all the same, my way or the highway. All I gotta say is welcome back Jason, we missed you. And if you have a little spare time, check out my buds site LOL Jesus.com.

Here's a statement from the band:

"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 judgment 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!"

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Tags:  Haste the Day, Dreamer, Jason Barnes, Jesus, Sanata Claus

jason    July 18, 2008