Andrew Himes

Who is Andrew Himes?

Andrew Himes is the executive director of the Charter for Compassion, launched in 2008 by TED.com and Karen Armstrong, with the mission of supporting the emergence of a global compassion movement. He is the author of The Sword of the Lord: The Roots of Fundamentalism in an American Family. He was born into a leading fundamentalist family of the 20th century. Himes' grandfather was John R. Rice, dean of American fundamentalists for decades until his death in 1980, and mentor to many younger Baptist preachers including Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell, as well as founding editor of The Sword of the Lord newspaper. Himes' great-grandfather, Will Rice, was a preacher, a Texas State senator, and a leading member of the Ku Klux Klan in Texas during the 1920s.

By the time Himes was four, he had been "saved"; by the time he was 17, he’d turned his back on the career as a Baptist preacher expected of him by his family, becoming instead an activist in the anti-war and civil rights movements of the 60s.