The issue arose after a September decision by a York County judge invalidating a 10-month marriage because the officiant — who was ordained online by the Universal Life Church — didn’t qualify as a minister under state law because he had no regular congregation or church.
Married by a Universal Life Church clergy member? You may not be legally married.
Wesley Spratt, an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church, preached for about seven years in prison after undergoing a religious awakening and receiving what he said was a calling from God.
The Universal Life Church will ordain just about anyone, free of charge, after they fill out a form on any of the church’s Web sites and click “Ordain me.”
Pastor Jack J. Stahl bombards Lucifer and his minions with horror-movie shouts, hollers and diabolical cackles. He barks a bit of Latin, fires thunderclaps of words thatdontmakemuchsense since they crash into one another like renegade bumper cars. But the ordained-by-mail minister’s 24-hour exorcism hotline kicks Beelzebub’s butt in kitschy style. To perform his little demon laundering, he spins the sing-along tunes of crooner Tom Jones, famous for “What’s New, Pussycat?” The 1981 Clayton Valley High School graduate became an ordained minister in the Modesto-based Universal Life Church, a 40-year heavy hitter in mail-order ministry. Anyone with a computer can become
While trolling the Internet for media gossip and religion news recently, I stopped by the Universal Life Church Internet site and got myself ordained.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a Christian, Satanist, Kabbalist, Wiccan, atheist, or a creator of your own “homemade” religion. The ULC, from its international headquarters in Modesto, Calif., and its monastery in Tucson, Ariz., welcomes all.
In 1962 he organized the Universal Life Church in order to propagate his rather idiosyncratic faith. “I believe heaven is when you have what you want and hell is when you don’t have it,” he explains. “I believe in reincarnation, an eternal beam in your body that moves from one body to another.