right|125px|thumb|Lewis Ashmore '''Lewis Leland Ashmore''' (October 18, 1931&nbsp;– March 24, 2008)<ref name="legacy.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/bakersfield/obituary.aspx?n=lewis-leland-ashmore&pid=106459773|title=Lewis Leland Ashmore's Obituary on Bakersfield Californian|work=legacy.com|accessdate=16 October 2016}}</ref> was a 20th-century American religious leader and a member of the board of directors and the founding vice president of the Universal Life Church founded by Kirby J. Hensley.

When Ashmore helped his friend Kirby J. Hensley to found the Universal Life Church in Modesto, California (1959-1962), they were both freelance southern ministers who had migrated to California.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/422105043|title=Los Angeles Times: Archives - BLESS THIS CHURCH|work=pqarchiver.com|access-date=16 October 2016}}</ref> A Mississippi native, he ran a church in Tehachapi, California. While a member of the church he wrote the book ''The Modesto Messiah: The Famous Mail-Order Minister''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ulc.net/index.php?page=library&sub=history|title=Universal Life Church, founded 1959 in Modesto - Official Site - Become Ordained|work=ulc.net|accessdate=16 October 2016}}</ref> According to his obituary in the Bakersfield Californian, Mr Ashmore left behind an unfinished movie project of the same title. <ref>https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bakersfield/name/lewis-ashmore-obituary?id=23929284</ref>

Ashmore was a noted exorcist having performed hundreds of exorcisms since the 1950s. "For decades Rev. Lewis Ashmore cast out devils during tent revivals in the Central Valley. People foamed at the mouth, talked back to him in a strange voice and writhed uncontrollably on the ground." Aged 75, two years before he died, Ashmore concluded that demonic possession could be explained in the 21st century by modern medicine. "Back in Christ’s day, these mental conditions weren’t yet diagnosed,” he said. “All exorcisms can be explained by psychology and science."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://meta-religion.com/Psychiatry/Demonic_possesion/psychiatry_meets.htm|title=Exorcism: Psychiatry Meets Faith|work=meta-religion.com|accessdate=16 October 2016}}</ref>

==Published works== *{{cite book |last=Ashmore |first=Lewis |authorlink=Lewis Ashmore |title=The Modesto messiah: The famous mail-order minister |publisher=Universal Press |year=1977 |isbn=0-918950-01-5 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/modestomessiahfa00ashmrich }}

==References== {{reflist}}

===Footnotes=== *{{cite book |last= Hensley |first= Kirby J.|title= The Buffer Zone |publisher= Universal Life Church |year= 1986 |asin= B00071NQX0}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashmore, Lewis}} Category:1931 births Category:2008 deaths Category:American exorcists Category:Universal Life Church Category:20th-century American clergy