{"id":31539,"date":"2013-01-11T19:03:19","date_gmt":"2013-01-11T19:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/enter-shikaris-rou-reynolds-responds-to-for\/"},"modified":"2013-01-11T19:03:19","modified_gmt":"2013-01-11T19:03:19","slug":"enter-shikaris-rou-reynolds-responds-to-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/enter-shikaris-rou-reynolds-responds-to-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Enter Shikari’s Rou Reynolds Responds to For Today’s Homophobic Comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Enter Shikari<\/strong> frontman Rou Reynolds has posted a statement responding to recent homophobic remarks<\/a> made by\u00a0Mike Reynolds, guitarist for Christian Metalcore band For Today<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Enter Shikari<\/strong> toured with For Today<\/strong> in America in 2011.<\/p>\n

The full message from Reynolds can be viewed by clicking read more.<\/p>\n

“Yesterday, the guitarist from \u2018christian metalcore\u2019 band For Today (a band Enter Shikari have previous toured the US alongside) made a series of offensive tweets of his thoughts on the \u2018sin\u2019 of homosexuality.<\/em><\/p>\n

Such statements should not be allowed to pass without being commented upon and having a light shone on them, and \u2013 thankfully \u2013 a lot of artists and journalists have spoken out against his comments.<\/em><\/p>\n

I (Rou) wanted to share his own thoughts\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n

Like most sane people I was completely knocked for six by this statement from\u2026 no, not a mentally deranged ageing goofball politician, or a fundamentalist fruitcake on his soapbox on a street corner, but a polite and successful musician\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

The guitarist in the American metalcore band, \u2018For Today\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n

The thought that we actually toured and shared the same stage as this musician in 2011 now makes me feel a bit nauseous. If I knew he held views as embarrassingly archaic and morally disgraceful as this, we wouldn\u2019t have ever gone near the band. Additionally to his nonsensical twitter outbursts, further personal anger is cemented in by the fact this bloke has the same surname as me\u2026 Bugger what an embarrassment to the Reynolds \u2018Clan\u2019!<\/em><\/p>\n

Ok, so to begin, there is obviously no place in our modern metal, punk, hardcore, rock (whatever you want to call it) scene for homophobia.<\/em><\/p>\n

In fact, there should be no place for these views anywhere full stop, especially not in music.<\/em><\/p>\n

For thousands of years Music has been one of the main things that brings us humans together! Not something that has divided or segregated us. Through coming together to experience melodies and rhythms and the plethora of emotions they can generate, Music by definition, is innately unifying. A beautifully communal human experience. Therefore, anyone wishing to label and exclude other humans as \u2018sinners\u2019, for simply loving the human that they wish to love, does not even deserve to pick up an instrument, history has proven to us that every musical instrument is a tool of unity, of diversity and of peace.<\/em><\/p>\n

But no i\u2019m not going to stop there, Mike Reynolds isn\u2019t JUST being an insult to music here, but also an insult to spirituality worldwide. We simply cannot and must not rely on the literal translation of scripture written thousands of years ago anymore. Our morality and understanding of the world has thankfully progressed colossally since that era and it\u2019s about time these kooky literalists realised it.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Bible has always been a tool for control of the masses and, arguably, never more so than in modern America, where it has been reduced down over the years to nothing more than a convenient and lucrative distraction\u2026 because while you\u2019ve got a scared and ill-educated population too busy debating over what rights some theoretical woman they don\u2019t know has over what happens to her own body, or whether two humans they\u2019ll never meet are able to legally declare their love and commitment to each other, then they\u2019re not liable to notice that they\u2019re supporting policies and laws that directly adversely affect their own family\u2019s financial situation and remove their basic freedoms.<\/em><\/p>\n

Let me tell you now, a person\u2019s right to spirituality, and a person\u2019s right to believe in a God (whichever one they choose), is a right I would always ardently fight for. It would be a terrible day if freedom of belief is ever taken away.<\/em><\/p>\n

But when religion begins to dictate education and curriculum or starts calling people evil for harmlessly fulfilling their romantic destiny, it needs to simply fuck off. For that is religion being misapplied to where it frankly has no business being.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now, really all we have here is some disastrously uneducated and religiously indoctrinated chaps saying what they think is \u2018right\u2019. This doesn\u2019t make them \u2018evil\u2019, as they\u2019re just a victim of our societies lack of education.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure they don\u2019t want to hurt anyone, they\u2019re just promoting views that they believe should be heard.<\/em><\/p>\n

Unfortunately though, this is another case where religion, with it\u2019s hubristic scriptures and dogmas has produced a false confidence, an ego, devoid of all logic and morality.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is where Religion gets dangerous. When people think they have God on their side, they don\u2019t actually stop to think how utterly illogical and immoral they may be being. This is the same mentality we see of suicide bombers and in religious war etc.<\/em><\/p>\n

Unlike the scientific method, which is constantly testing itself and trying to prove itself wrong, religion can breed a queasy egotistical ability to exclaim things as incontrovertibly true. This ultimately creates a disrespect towards morality, and is exactly what we see here; A person so up his own arse in his haggard antique beliefs that he can\u2019t even realise just how out of touch and revolting he\u2019s being.<\/em><\/p>\n

And no, don\u2019t go telling me that they are his opinions and just like any opinion, they should be respected. No. Rushed, thoughtless and poisonous \u2018opinions\u2019 or propaganda like this should NOT be respected by you or anyone. There is nothing here deserving of respect.<\/em><\/p>\n

Plato, 400 years before the alleged birth of Christ, said \u201cMusic is a more potent instrument than any other for education, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Music is a beautiful tool to educate ourselves with. And I thought the purpose of education was not to validate ignorance and intolerance, but to over come it.<\/em><\/p>\n

So, to anyone spouting these divisive and disgusting views, I say simply but vehemently, please educate yourself or put down your instrument.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Enter Shikari frontman Rou Reynolds has posted a statement responding to recent homophobic remarks made by\u00a0Mike Reynolds, guitarist for Christian Metalcore band For Today. Enter Shikari toured with For Today in America in 2011. The full message from Reynolds can be viewed by clicking read more. “Yesterday, the guitarist from \u2018christian metalcore\u2019 band For Today […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8181],"tags":[491,4634,13729],"class_list":["post-31539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post","tag-enter-shikari","tag-for-today","tag-rou-reynolds"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEnter Shikari's Rou Reynolds Responds to For Today's Homophobic Comments - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Enter Shikari frontman Rou Reynolds has posted a statement responding to recent homophobic remarks made by\u00a0Mike Reynolds, guitarist for Christian\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Enter Shikari's Rou Reynolds Responds to For Today's Homophobic Comments - Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Enter Shikari frontman Rou Reynolds has posted a statement responding to recent homophobic remarks made by\u00a0Mike Reynolds, guitarist for Christian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/enter-shikaris-rou-reynolds-responds-to-for\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-11T19:03:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/imageshack.us\/a\/img20\/1444\/entershikari150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Enter Shikari's Rou Reynolds Responds to For Today's Homophobic Comments - Already Heard Staging","description":"Enter Shikari frontman Rou Reynolds has posted a statement responding to recent homophobic remarks made by\u00a0Mike Reynolds, guitarist for Christian","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Enter Shikari's Rou Reynolds Responds to For Today's Homophobic Comments - Already Heard Staging","og_description":"Enter Shikari frontman Rou Reynolds has posted a statement responding to recent homophobic remarks made by\u00a0Mike Reynolds, guitarist for Christian","og_url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/enter-shikaris-rou-reynolds-responds-to-for\/","og_site_name":"Already Heard Staging","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","article_published_time":"2013-01-11T19:03:19+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/imageshack.us\/a\/img20\/1444\/entershikari150.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_site":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Estimated reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/enter-shikaris-rou-reynolds-responds-to-for\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/enter-shikaris-rou-reynolds-responds-to-for\/"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/508ed29771f8c5b56fdcf4695f22a2a3"},"headline":"Enter Shikari’s Rou Reynolds Responds to For Today’s Homophobic Comments","datePublished":"2013-01-11T19:03:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/enter-shikaris-rou-reynolds-responds-to-for\/"},"wordCount":1011,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/enter-shikaris-rou-reynolds-responds-to-for\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/imageshack.us\/a\/img20\/1444\/entershikari150.jpg","keywords":["Enter Shikari","For Today","Rou Reynolds"],"articleSection":["Post"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/enter-shikaris-rou-reynolds-responds-to-for\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/enter-shikaris-rou-reynolds-responds-to-for\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/enter-shikaris-rou-reynolds-responds-to-for\/","name":"Enter Shikari's Rou Reynolds Responds to For Today's Homophobic Comments - Already Heard Staging","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/enter-shikaris-rou-reynolds-responds-to-for\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/enter-shikaris-rou-reynolds-responds-to-for\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/imageshack.us\/a\/img20\/1444\/entershikari150.jpg","datePublished":"2013-01-11T19:03:19+00:00","description":"Enter Shikari frontman Rou Reynolds has posted a statement responding to recent homophobic remarks made by\u00a0Mike Reynolds, guitarist for Christian","inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/enter-shikaris-rou-reynolds-responds-to-for\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/enter-shikaris-rou-reynolds-responds-to-for\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/imageshack.us\/a\/img20\/1444\/entershikari150.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/imageshack.us\/a\/img20\/1444\/entershikari150.jpg"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","name":"Already Heard Staging","description":"Covering the best in alternative music as best as we can","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization","name":"Already Heard","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","width":500,"height":500,"caption":"Already Heard"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","https:\/\/x.com\/alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alreadyheard\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/already-heard\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/AlreadyHeardMusic","https:\/\/tiktok.com\/@alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@alreadyheard"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/508ed29771f8c5b56fdcf4695f22a2a3","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcf4d491c971b5225a3e3c450225c0ae6ba0217be8f6ecb776a9506d4aa5595f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcf4d491c971b5225a3e3c450225c0ae6ba0217be8f6ecb776a9506d4aa5595f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcf4d491c971b5225a3e3c450225c0ae6ba0217be8f6ecb776a9506d4aa5595f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31539\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}