Editing Kirby J. Hensley

{{short description|President and founder of Universal Life Church}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Kirby James Hensley
| image         = <!-- filename only, no "File:" or "Image:" prefix, and no enclosing [[brackets]] -->
| alt           = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
| caption       = 
| birth_name    = <!-- only use if different from name -->
| birth_date    = {{Birth date|1911|07|23}}
| birth_place   = 
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|1999|03|19|1911|07|23}}
| death_place   = 
| other_names   = 
| occupation    = President and founder of [[Universal Life Church]]
| years_active  = 1962–1999
| known_for     = 
| notable_works = 
}}

'''Kirby James Hensley''' (July 23, 1911&nbsp;– March 19, 1999) was an American minister. He was the president and founder of the [[Universal Life Church]].

==Biography==
The second of seven children, Hensley was born on July 23, 1911, in the mountains of Low Gap, [[Yancey County]], [[North Carolina]]. For more than 65 years he studied and preached [[religion]] throughout the [[United States]]. He was [[Functional illiteracy|functionally illiterate]];<ref>{{cite web |title=Inside the Universal Life Church, the internet's one true religion |date=3 April 2015 |url=https://theweek.com/articles/536587/inside-universal-life-church-internets-true-religion |publisher=[[The Week]] |access-date=16 December 2023 |language=en |archive-date=14 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150414113104/https://theweek.com/articles/536587/inside-universal-life-church-internets-true-religion |url-status=live }}</ref> he hired others to read the [[Bible]] for him and later listened to recordings of the Bible on tape.<ref>The Holy Bible for the 21st Century, U.L.C. Printing Dept.</ref> Hensley "studied and preached religion"  in this manner for 65 years.<ref>[https://www.ulchq.com/founder.htm ''President/Founder''] ulchq.com, [[Universal Life Church]], Headquarters,  December 16, 2023</ref>

Hensley received a doctoral degree ([[Distance education|via mail]]) from an institution named Hollywood University of Los Angeles, then an honorary doctorate in a domain of [[Metallurgy|science]] from a school in Nebraska.<ref>[https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,839008,00.html ''Clergy: Mail-Order Ministers''] time.com, [[Time (magazine)]],  December 16, 2023</ref>

He was ordained in a branch of the [[Baptist Church]], but after several years he left the denomination and attended the [[Pentecostalism|Pentecostal church]]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]] and [[California]].

Hensley later divorced Nora and moved back to North Carolina, where he met his second wife, Lida. 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.<ref>[http://theweek.com/articles/536587/inside-universal-life-church-internets-true-religion ''Inside the Universal Life Church, the internet's one true religion''] theweek.com, Aaron Sankin,  April 3, 2015</ref> He ran for [[President of the United States]] as the Universal Party's candidate  in 1964 and 1968, with Roscoe MacKenna as his running mate.

Hensley founded the [[Universal Life Church]] 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]]'' (also available in printed version — final highlight on page 24, still with [[Morley Safer]], who concludes: "I certainly liked him. He was a wonderful character.").<ref>{{cite book  | last = Jackman  | first = Ian | title = Con Men: Fascinating Profiles of Swindlers and Rogues from the Files of the Most Successful Broadcast in Television History  | publisher = [[Simon & Schuster]]  | year = 2003  | isbn = 0-7432-2448-5  | url = https://archive.org/details/conmenfascinatin00jack}} — 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."</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{cite book |last=Ashmore |first=Lewis |authorlink=Lewis Ashmore |title=The Modesto messiah: The famous mail-order minister |publisher=[[Universal Publishers (United States)|Universal Press]] |year=1977 |isbn=0-918950-01-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/modestomessiahfa00ashmrich }}
*{{cite book |last= Hensley |first= Kirby J.|title=The Buffer Zone |publisher= [[Universal Life Church]] |year= 1986 |asin= B00071NQX0}}

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{{succession box|
 before=Office created|
 title=President of the [[Universal Life Church]]|
 years=1962–1999|
 after=[[Lida Hensley]]
}}
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{{authority control}}

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