Robert A. Heinlein

Kerista, Robert A. Heinlein, and Stranger in a Strange Land[edit]

Science-fiction author Robert A. Heinlein, in a 1966 letter to his agent Lurton Blassingame, mentioned Kerista in connection with his 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land:

"I recently learned that it (Stranger in a Strange Land) was considered the "New Testament" - and compulsory reading - of a far-out cult called 'Kerista.' (Kee-rist!). I don't know exactly what "Kerista" is, but its L.A. chapter offered me $100 to speak. (I turned them down.)" ^[7]

Further reference to the influence of Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land on Kerista, as well as the Church of All Worlds (which took its name from the fictional church created by Stranger's protagonist Michael Valentine Smith), and Discordianism is made by Carole M. Cusack in her book Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction and Faith :^[8]

"Kerista's polyamorous sexual practice was influenced, as was that of the Church of All Worlds, by Robert A. Heinlein's (1907-88) science-fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), in which the Martian-raised human Michael Valentine Smith founded The Church of All Worlds, preached sexual freedom and the truth of all religions, and is martyred by narrow-minded people who are not ready for freedom."

Cusack speculates that the person who invited Heinlein to speak at Kerista's Los Angeles chapter may have been co-founder of Discordianism Kerry Thornley, who lived in Watts. Thornley had joined Kerista in 1966 and was known to be a lifelong science-fiction fan.