Kirby James Hensley (July 23, 1911 – March 19, 1999) was an American minister. He was the president and founder of the

Universal Life Church The Universal Life Church (ULC) is an American non-denominational religious organization founded in 1962 by Kirby J. Hensley,James R. Lewis, The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religions' (2001), p. 769-70.U.S. Department of the Army, ' ...

Biography

The second of seven children, Hensley was born on July 23, 1911, in the mountains of Low Gap, Yancey County,

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. For more than 65 years he studied and preached

religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

throughout the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. He was practically

functionally illiterate Functional illiteracy consists of reading and writing skills that are inadequate "to manage daily living and employment tasks that require reading skills beyond a basic level". Those who read and write only in a language other than the predominan ...

; he hired others to read the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

for him and later listened to recordings of the Bible on tape. Hensley "studied and preached religion" in this manner for 65 years. Hensley received a doctoral degree ( via mail) from institution by name of Hollywood University of Los Angeles, then an honorary doctorate in a domain of

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

from a school in Nebraska. He was ordained in a branch of the

Baptist Church Baptists are a denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers ( believer's baptism) and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches generally subscribe to the doctrines of ...

, but after several years he left the denomination and attended the

Pentecostal church Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a movement within the broader Evangelical wing of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God in Christianity, God through Baptism with the Holy Spirit#Cl ...

es in the area. He married his first wife Nora in a Pentecostal church ceremony; they had two daughters together. He also pastored in

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

and

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Hensley later divorced Nora and moved back to North Carolina, where he met his second wife,

Lida Lida is a city in Grodno Region, western Belarus, located west of Minsk. It serves as the administrative center of Lida District. As of 2025, it has a population of 103,262. Etymology The name ''Lida'' arises from its Lithuanian name ''Ly ...

. During their forty-six-year marriage, they had one daughter and two sons. In the mid-1980s, Hensley called himself the King of Aqualandia and sold citizenship documents, as well as church ordinations, for $35. He ran for

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

as the Universal Party's candidate in 1964 and 1968, with Roscoe MacKenna as his running mate. Hensley founded the

in 1962. He remained president of the church until his death on March 19, 1999. He compiled many sermons and once appeared on ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who distinguished it from other news programs by using a unique style o ...

'' (also available in printed version — final highlight on page 24, still with

Morley Safer Morley Safer (November 8, 1931 – May 19, 2016) was a Canadian-American broadcast journalist, reporter, and correspondent for CBS News. He was best known for his long tenure on the news magazine ''60 Minutes'', whose cast he joined in 1970 af ...

, who concludes: "I certainly liked him. He was a wonderful character."). — Necessary clarification/"Con man": page 21 — "And the paper included a lot of advertisements that were, as Safer put it carefully, 'Kind of dubious—slightly, you know, con man—.' It was at this point that Kirby Hensley told Morley Safer he considered ''himself'' a con man. He preferred to believe that "it's what you do and how you treat your fellow man that count."

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hensley, Kirby J. 1911 births 1999 deaths American founders Universal Life Church People from Yancey County, North Carolina 20th-century Baptist ministers from the United States Founders of new religious movements Baptists from North Carolina