Universal Life Church Schism: Kirby Hensley vs. George Freeman





The Universal Life Church (ULC), founded by Kirby J. Hensley in Modesto, California, in 1959 and formally incorporated in 1962, represents one of the most consequential experiments in American religious liberty of the twentieth century [1]. Hensley's core innovation — ordaining "anyone for free and for life with no creedal commitments or ministerial training required" [1] — anticipated by decades the contemporary rise of "spiritual but not religious" identification and the broader democratization of religious authority [2]. In 2006, a Seattle-based branch of the ULC, led by George Freeman, formally separated from the Modesto church amid financial and legal disputes, becoming the Universal Life Church Monastery (ULCM) [3]. Freeman has since described his branch not as a breakaway but as a continuation and restoration of Hensley's original vision [4]. This essay examines that claim against the available historical, legal, and journalistic record, and argues that while both men made genuine contributions to expanding access to religious ordination and supporting LGBTQ+ communities, Freeman's characterization of his relationship to Hensley's legacy overstates the degree of institutional continuity and legitimacy his organization actually holds.

Hensley's ULC and Its Legal Troubles


Hensley's church faced sustained scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service almost from its founding. The IRS initially challenged the ULC's tax-exempt status in 1974, a dispute the church won, preserving its 501(c)(3) status [5][6]. However, by the early 1980s the IRS determined that Hensley, the Modesto ULC, and its affiliated congregations were promoting tax-avoidance schemes through church publications, leading to the revocation of the Modesto church's tax-exempt status in 1984 [7]. Litigation over this revocation continued for sixteen years, ultimately settled in 2000 when the Modesto organization agreed to pay $1.5 million in back taxes [7]. A federal claims court additionally documented that ULC-affiliated ministers had assisted congregants in preparing fraudulent tax filings [8]. These findings are corroborated across independent court records and academic sources, distinguishing them from the more self-interested claims made by parties on either side of the later Freeman–Modesto split.

Freeman's Parallel History of Controversy


George Freeman's own record contains comparable, if distinct, legal difficulties. From the late 1970s through 1985, Freeman operated The Monastery, an all-ages Seattle nightclub and ULC-affiliated congregation serving LGBTQ youth, alongside a related venue in Spokane known as The Waterworks [9]. The Monastery drew allegations of drug use, underage drinking, and other offenses, prompting repeated police raids [9]. A 1999 profile in *The Stranger* reported that none of the criminal allegations against Freeman resulted in conviction, and that he characterized the case against him as built on hearsay [10]. Nonetheless, a King County Superior Court judge ruled in 1985 that the venue constituted a public nuisance and ordered it abated, a ruling Freeman lost after representing himself at trial [10][11]. The city subsequently enacted Seattle's Teen Dance Ordinance, described by contemporary press as a direct response to the controversy [10]. A separate federal civil rights suit Freeman brought against King County prosecutors was dismissed by the Ninth Circuit on prosecutorial immunity grounds [12].

The Contested 2005–2006 Split


The transition of leadership from Daniel Zimmerman to George Freeman is the most disputed episode in this history. One account holds that disputes over Zimmerman's leadership — including allegations of erratic behavior and misuse of funds — led Freeman, then vice president, to work with the organization's board to remove Zimmerman in August 2006, after which Freeman reincorporated the fulfillment center as the Universal Life Church Monastery Storehouse [13]. Contemporary news coverage from the time of the split, however, frames the episode more neutrally as a "bitter struggle" between the two men over control of shared assets, including the church's website and a house in Tucson [14]. A rival ULC branch's account frames the sequence in the opposite direction, alleging Zimmerman removed Freeman as vice president in 2005 and that Freeman then took unauthorized control of the disputed domain [15]. Because no neutral third-party account of this episode has been identified, the accuracy of either sequence cannot be independently confirmed.

Examining the Legitimacy Claim


Freeman's promotional materials describe his organization as "continuing in the tradition started by founder Rev. Kirby Hensley," and assert that his work has "ushered a new kind of religion into the 21st century" [4]. Such language, considered alone, is consistent with common practice among breakaway religious bodies, which frequently claim doctrinal or spiritual continuity with a parent tradition without maintaining any formal institutional relationship to it — a pattern well established across historical denominational schisms. The claim becomes more difficult to sustain, however, where it implies ongoing formal affiliation or registration with the Modesto church. Federal court filings record Freeman's own deposition testimony describing the ULC Monastery as "completely independent" of the Modesto ULC, with "no association" between the two organizations [16]. This is corroborated by Wikipedia's summary of the split as a formal separation over "financial, legal, and philosophical disputes" [3], and by an academic interview describing the Monastery as a former branch that assumed control of shared web assets following Hensley's death in 1999 [17]. The claim of ongoing registration or affiliation with Modesto is therefore not supported by, and is in fact contradicted by, the most direct available evidence — Freeman's own sworn testimony.

Conclusion


Both Hensley and Freeman made durable contributions to American religious life: Hensley by building an ordination system that removed financial and credentialing barriers to religious authority, and Freeman by sustaining a community institution that provided shelter and support to marginalized LGBTQ+ youth during a period of widespread social hostility. Neither man's record is free of serious controversy — Hensley's church incurred well-documented tax-law violations, and Freeman's venues drew credible legal sanction, even where the most serious allegations against him were never proven. What distinguishes Freeman's case from an ordinary "flawed but consequential founder" narrative is the additional layer of self-presentation: his framing of the 2006 split as a rescue of Hensley's church from corruption, and his suggestion of continued affiliation with Modesto, are not supported by independent sources and are directly contradicted by his own legal testimony. A more accurate account holds that Freeman built an independent, commercially significant successor organization inspired by Hensley's philosophy, rather than one occupying any continuing institutional or legal relationship to Hensley's original church.




By David F. Garner




Author disclosure: Garner is an ordained minister in both the ULC Monastery first and then later the ULC Modesto organizations.


Sources:


1. Universal Life Church Monastery. *World Religions and Spirituality Project*, wrldrels.org/2020/07/26/universal-life-church-monastery/

2. Hoesly, D. Weddings, Religion, and the Universal Life Church: An Interview with Dusty Hoesly. usreligion.blogspot.com/2016/06/weddings-religion-and-universal-life.html

3. Universal Life Church. *Wikipedia*, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Life_Church

4. George Freeman. georgefreeman.com

5. Universal Life Church. *World Religions and Spirituality Project*, wrldrels.org/2016/10/08/universal-life-church/

6. Universal Life Church, Inc. v. United States. CourtListener.com

7. Universal Life Church. *Wikipedia*, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Life_Church (IRS revocation and settlement)

8. Claims Court Upholds IRS Revocation of Universal Life Church's Tax-Exempt Status. *Tax Notes*, taxnotes.com

9. Universal Life Church Monastery. *World Religions and Spirituality Project* (Waterworks and Monastery raids), wrldrels.org/2020/07/26/universal-life-church-monastery/

10. The Return of the Demon. *The Stranger*, thestranger.com/news/1999/09/02/1895/the-return-of-the-demon

11. Conspiracy Against the Monastery. georgefreeman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/CONSPIRACY-AGAINST-THE-MONASTERY.pdf

12. George Freeman v. Leroy Hittle et al., 708 F.2d 442 (9th Cir. 1983). Justia.com

13. Universal Life Church Monastery. *World Religions and Spirituality Project* (2005–2006 leadership dispute), wrldrels.org/2020/07/26/universal-life-church-monastery/

14. Holy Split. Tucson.com, tucson.com/business/local/holy-split/

15. Hensley & ULC Modesto. *The Real Universal Life Church*, universal-life-church.com/ulc-modesto

16. Universal Life Church Monastery Storehouse v. King. CourtListener.com

17. Hoesly, D., op. cit. (Hensley's death and domain control)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rev. Kirby Hensley's Best Quotes

Image
“The Universal Life Church believes that when a man requests to be ordained, that he is already ordained of God, according to the Bible." -unknown ___ “The Universal Life Church has no traditional doctrine, nor does it require people to believe in that which is untrue to them. Each individual has the privilege and responsibility to determine for themselves, as long as it does not infringe on the rights of others.” -The Modesto Bee, various articles, 1964-2009 ___ "When you look into the mirror, realize that it is that person who will give you what your heart desires." - A New Life, Do You Want It? pg. 23 ___ “Pray that Man may not become extinct on this planet but that he will awaken to Universal Brotherhood and peace so that peace and prosperity may be experienced by all mankind.” - The Modesto Messiah pg. 90 ___ “I believe a marriage is the ultimate fulfillment for two people in love who wish to share that love. As long as that love remains, there is a good relations...
Read more

Kirby Hensley and the Broadening of Spiritual Authority

Image
Kirby J. Hensley is not usually remembered as a major theologian, philosopher, or architect of twentieth-century American religion. His name appears more often in discussions of mail-order ordination, unconventional churches, and the legal ambiguities surrounding the Universal Life Church than in accounts of religious thought. Yet this may be precisely why his legacy deserves a more careful reading. Hensley’s significance may lie less in the originality of his ideas than in the institutional form he gave them: a church that made religious authority unusually easy for ordinary people to claim. Founded in Modesto, California, the Universal Life Church presented itself as a radically inclusive religious organization, oriented around religious freedom and the simple ethical principle often summarized as “Do that which is right.” Hensley appears to have imagined a church capacious enough to include people across doctrinal boundaries. In practice, however, the church became most famous for ...
Read more

The Unsystematic Theology of Kirby J. Hensley: Reading A New Life – Do You Want It?

Image
  Kirby J. Hensley, founder of the Universal Life Church, left behind surprisingly little in the way of documented theology. His 1983 book A New Life – Do You Want It? offers one of the fullest windows into his actual thinking, yet it resists easy classification. Rather than a single coherent system, the book presents a set of overlapping, loosely reconciled positions, each identifiable on its own terms but never fully integrated into a whole. What follows is an attempt to name those positions — and to suggest, in closing, the broader tradition they most plausibly belong to. Christian Mortalism and Materialism Hensley rejects any dualism between the spiritual and the material outright. Substance, for him, is eternal and self-sufficient: "I believe that substance is eternal and is only changed from one form to another. There is no beginning and no end." Heaven and Hell are correspondingly de-supernaturalized and relocated to the present, embodied world — "We can have Heav...
Read more