This East Side home, bought for $160,000 in 2002, is among the church assets being fought over by a former CEO and vice president of the Universal Life Church Monastery.

Benjie Sanders / Arizona Daily Star

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The Universal Life Church Monastery asks members only to "promote the freedom of religion and to Do that Which is Right," according to its Web site.

This is the same Web site at which you can become an ordained minister for free.

And be absolved of your sins instantly.

And order a "Ministry-in-a-Box" for $139.

And order your certification as a Jedi Knight for only $4.50.

The site is also at the center of a bitter struggle between church leaders over a house in Tucson, church money and the Web site itself, a key church asset. Daniel Zimmerman, the monastery's CEO of the past several years and a Tucson resident, claims control of the monastery has been wrested from him by George Freeman, a former vice president of the organization who once ran a Seattle church — popularly regarded as a notorious nightclub where teens could find group sex and drugs — called The Monastery.

The Universal Life Church Monastery is an independent offshoot of the original Universal Life Church in Modesto, Calif., a nondenominational church that boasts it has ordained more than 20 million people around the world. Those ordinations are used for everything from performing marriage ceremonies to offering comfort to hospice patients, some here in Tucson.

Zimmerman says that no less than the validity of some marriages and the baptism of countless babies is at risk. How? Online requests for ordination after Aug. 1 were processed by Freeman, who is no longer recognized by the Arizona Corporation Commission as an officer of the church. Because of that, those ministers may not be legally ordained, Zimmerman said.

More tangibly, Zimmerman and Freeman want control of church assets that include $129,000 in cash, a 1,900-square-foot East Side home that was bought in 2002 for $160,000 and the church's widely visited Web site (www.themonastery.org), which has more than 2,800 registered users.

Corporation Commission notified

In February, Freeman filed paperwork with the Arizona Corporation Commission stating that the organization's board of directors voted to remove Zimmerman as CEO because he engaged in "fraudulent conduct," conducted himself in a manner unbecoming a board member and because of a recent arrest in which Zimmerman cursed at a Qwest employee in Park Place mall upon learning a new cell phone might not be activated right away.

Zimmerman, 58, said "he could blow this place up along with all the other stores," according to a Tucson police report.

For a while, the Corporation Commission recognized Freeman's claim to lead the Universal Life Church Monastery. But then it was decided that Freeman's documents were "accepted in error here at the commission," said Heather Murphy, a commission spokeswoman.

That error has been corrected and, according to the commission, Zimmerman is now recognized as the organization's CEO.

"He came back to the Arizona Corporation Commission and was able to bamboozle them somehow," Freeman said of Zimmerman.

Although Freeman has again tried to file paperwork arguing he is CEO, that paperwork has been rejected, Murphy said.

"We have no legal basis upon which to accept those filings, so they have actually been returned to Mr. Freeman," Murphy said."Bottom line is, this is a dispute between individuals over control over the church."

John Knew, a local Universal Life Church minister, said he's familiar with the struggle between Zimmerman and Freeman. "I have to admit, we have a little worry there," Knew said.

Regardless of the unity among the Universal Life Church Monastery's leadership, the legitimacy of the church's ordinations presents a deeper concern, according to the Rev. Gordon McBride, the rector of Grace St. Paul's Episcopal Church 2331 E. Adams St. in Midtown.

"I think we need to protect the integrity of our certification processes and our ordination and our degree certificates," McBride said.

McBride said the process for becoming ordained through the Episcopal church might be described as "Byzantine," requiring years of seminary study as well as the support of a congregation.

Both Zimmerman and Freeman have questionable activities in their backgrounds.

After his recent arrest, Zimmerman, whose speech is often peppered with obscenities, completed a diversion program, and his City Court charge was dropped. But that wasn't his first run-in with the law. More than 20 years ago, he was convicted in U.S. District Court in the northern district of Iowa on charges of participating in a conspiracy to hinder and hamper the IRS. Zimmerman, who said he served more than two years in a federal prison "camp" in Kansas, denies he violated any federal laws in that case.

Freeman said the tarnished reputation in Seattle of his original Monastery is unjustified. He provided food and shelter to Salvadoran refugees and the homeless, he said.

But parents and local newspapers vilified that operation as a home of illicit acts, and King County prosecutors filed a civil lawsuit that resulted in an injunction that closed it down in 1985. Freeman said the only illicit activity was that some minors sold drugs to undercover police officers.

"Bad guys don't stand in my camp," Freeman said.

For now, Freeman has the $129,000 and control of the Web site. But Zimmerman is fighting to retain control of the church's nondescript house near East Golf Links and South Harrison roads.

As for determining who is actually entitled to run the Universal Life Church Monastery, as a legal entity in Arizona, that's something that would have to be decided by a Superior Court judge, said Matthew Sweger, a lawyer with Lewis and Roca. And neither party has sued.

"The documents on file with the Arizona Corporation Commission are generally reliable, but this is the kind of thing that can happen when you have an open filing system. The ACC relies on the perjury statute as a way of screening dubious filings," Sweger said.

In the future, Freeman said, he hopes to have the monastery begin new "good works" campaigns. He's also sent what amounts to an appeal to the Corporation Commission. And he plans to continue on as leader of the church.

Zimmerman said he's willing to relinquish responsibility of the church if he receives a retirement package worth several hundred thousand dollars he claims was promised to him when he joined the church decades ago.

In a voice mail left Friday, Zimmerman said, "We have prevailed, and we're negotiating for a settlement."