Kirby J. Hensley

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. Was illiterate his entire life perhaps because he abandoned the secular education after third grade, but had two doctorates according to Time (magazine) (one of them the result of his studies and the other honorary in one science about metals), because he continued his study of religion throughout his life; in addition, he was ordained minister of a religious denomination as recognition. Hensley hired others to read the Bible for him (as part of what would be inclusive education at the time) and later listened to recordings of the Bible on tape (remember: a person with dyslexia has a normal desire to learn, if that is the case here).[1]

Hensley was ordained in a branch of the Baptist Church, but after several years he left the denomination and attended the Pentecostal churches 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, as part of propaganda and marketing (focused on his preaching), Hensley (fun, obviously) called himself the King of Aqualandia (to attract people's attention) and sold citizenship documents (attitude towards collecting donations for church works), as well as church ordinations, for $35.[2] 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 remained president of the church until his death on March 19, 1999. He compiled many sermons and once appeared on 60 Minutes (A little about what was published: page 17 - "Who said it was a con? [...].' 60 Minutes visited services performed by some of Hensley 's graduates, and clearly some of these people took their ministerships very seriously." & page 21 - "[...] 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 fellowman that count.").[3]

• Ashmore, Lewis (1977). The Modesto messiah: The famous mail-order minister. Universal Press. ISBN 0-918950-01-5.
• Hensley, Kirby J. (1986). The Buffer Zone. Universal Life Church. ASIN B00071NQX0.