Andrew Himes's blog

My book, The Sword of the Lord: The Roots of Fundamentalism in an American Family, was released in May as both a paperback and an Ebook, and it's done OK for a work of history by a relatively unknown author.

At the American Academy of Religion meeting in San Francisco in November, Chiara Press hosted a public conversation between Randall Balmer and me titled "Emerging from Fundamentalism," during which we discussed my recent book The Sword of the Lord: The Roots of Fundamentalism in an American Family.

Kinyarwanda: Forgiveness is Freedom, a new movie from talented African American director Alrick Brown, is not a movie about genocide, though it is set in  Rwandan during the 100 days in 1994 during which over 1,000,000 Tutsis were killed by Hutus in an internecine bloodbath.

From December 8-24, I am appearing in Black Nativity as a member of the choir in the Moore Theater in Seattle. Celebrate the holiday season with the joyful gospel song play by American poet, journalist, novelist, memoir and short story writer, Langston Hughes. Enjoy the retelling of the Nativity by way of gospel music, dance, poetry and narrative.

Last month, on Saturday, November 12, I was one of the featured speakers at TedXRainier. The event took place in Kane Hall at the University of Washington in Seattle.   On Sunday morning, November 13, I preached at St Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle in three services. On Saturday, November 19,  at the Academy of American Religion conference in San Francisco, I was hosted by Chiara Press for a conversation titled "Emerging from Fundamentalism" with Randall Balmer, author of Growing Pains: How I Learned to Love My Father's Faith.  

Excerpt from Chapter 3 of The Sword of the Lord: The Roots of Fundamentalism in an American Family

On Tuesday afternoon, October 4, 2011, my sister Faith called from Chattanooga and said, “Mom’s gone.” I heard a rushing sound in my ears and my heart thumped and I said the most profound thing I could think of, which was, “Oh my.” Then I leaned against the wall as Faith told me the details—our 86-year-old Mom was walking down the hall when she just fell down and was gone that fast, likely it was her heart that gave out—and Faith and I cried t

Andrew Himes: "My old friend Anne Schott married her husband Mark ten years ago. Here is her eloquent essay reflecting on that experience."

Ten years ago, in the wake of the destruction of 9/11, my friend Mark Anderson of Strategic News Service (SNS) asked his subscribers to offer their suggestions for an intelligent response to the challenge of global terrorism.  At the time, Americans were frightened and sad about the tragedy of 9/11, and the US government was moving rapidly toward the only reponse George Bush and many others could imagine: an armed invasion of Afghanistan with the intention of rooting out and obliterating Osama bin Laden and the Taliban.