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Kerista

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Kerista was a new religion that was started in New York City in 1956 by John Peltz "Bro Jud" Presmont. Throughout much of its history, Kerista was centered on the ideals of polyfidelity (called "responsible non-monogamy") and creation of intentional communities. Kerista underwent several incarnations that later became known as the "Old Tribe"-which was associated with a fairly large, but fluid membership.

For the record, most of the following information is derived from articles and periodicals by third parties, which is like having your neighbor explaining what happened in your bedroom last night.[editorializing]

History

From 1971 until 1991, the community was centered at the Kerista Commune (not a single physical building), founded in San Francisco, California. The Keristans maintained a very high profile which included publication of a popular free newspaper and several national media appearances.

Kerista also produced zines that included drawings and comics drawn by Even Eve (also known as Eve Furchgott, the daughter of the Nobel Prize winner Robert Furchgott), one of the earliest and core members. Some concerned day-to-day life, others presented a lighthearted polytheistic mythology which revolved around a pantheon of benevolent and technologically adept goddesses and gods. Kerista adopted singer Joan Jett as the "Matron Saint" of their community. Features presented in the zine included articles and essays concerning life within the community and their proposed World Plan to establish a functional Utopian society on a larger scale.

The Keristans shared income and could choose whether or not to have outside paying jobs or work within the community (which operated several businesses, a legally incorporated church and an educational non-profit organization). The most successful of the businesses was Abacus, Inc., an early Macintosh computer vendor in San Francisco, which eventually offered a variety of computer hardware, training and services. At it's height, Abacus employed over 250 people and had offices in 5 major California cities. Voted the 33rd and 42nd fastest growing privately held comopany in America by INC 500 in 1990 & 1991 respectively, Abacus achieved revenues in excess of $25 Million per year. Prior to Apple Computer Corporation abandoning the Value-Added Reseller in 1992, Abacus was the number one reseller of Apple Macintosh computers in the bay area in 1991.

The official website lists 33 people as having joined Kerista at various times during the community's history, though more than this number passed through for short time periods. The commune also maintained a very active program of social events and Gestalt-o-rama rap groups. The number of people that spent significant time interacting with the commune members was much larger. The commune functioned a lot like a religious order and was an important focal point for a larger community of people in San Francisco interested in alternative lifestyles. The event sponsored by Kerista were almost always free and non-commercial. In 1979 and 1980, two children were born in the community. In 1983, the adult male Keristans had vasectomies, officially as a means to deal with birth control in the group and address global population issues (and, unofficially, to curtail the division of members' loyalties between children and the group "trip," that occurred when children were involved). All male applicants subsequently had the requirement of having a vasectomy within a set period of time after joining the community. This and many other rules or "standards" were in part responsible for keeping the size of the community small.

In 1991, the community experienced a major split, the founder going on to create The World Academy of Keristan Education. The residential commune itself dissolved, with the rest of the members going on to do other things with their lives. The terms polyfidelity and compersion were coined at the Kerista Commune.

John (Bro Jud) Presmont died on December 13, 2009 in San Francisco, CA[1]. In his last years, Jud had been seen regularly on 'The Bro Jud Show' on San Francisco Public Access TV. One of the children raised in the commune recently graduated from medical school and is now working in Haiti[2]. A former member of the commune was nominated for an Emmy in 2006.[3]

Polyfidelity

The Keristans formed several family groups called Best Friend Identity Clusters (B-FICs). The Keristans also referred to this practice as polyfidelity. http://www.kerista.com/poly.html

Polifidelty fits the definitions of group marriage by relationship researchers. For example:

  • "Group marriage, as used in this paper, refers to a family structure in which three or more adult members (including at least one male and female) live together on a communal basis and share labor, goods, services, money, and the

bearing and raising of children, and have sexual access to each other." Sheldon Salsberg (1973). Is Group Marriage Viable? Journal of Sex Research, 9, 325-333. Quote from page 325.

  • "To be a group (multilateral) marriage, we required only that all partners, when queried individually, report themselves to be 'married' or comparably committed to more than one other partner." Larry L. Constantine & Joan M. Constantine (1974). In Re: Group Marriage. Journal of Sex Research, 10, 176-179. Quote from page 176.

The Keristans inside a B-FIC meet the above definitions. People joined a B-FIC with the intention of lifelong commitment and considered themselves families:

  • "LIL: Right. The family structure that we have is called polyfidelity, and as the word sounds, it's fidelity to a group of people in family units. Now, of the 15 adults who are in our community, we are not all in the same family, so we are not all sleeping together. There's one family of eight adults, another of three, another of two, and there are two individuals who are not members of any family." http://www.kerista.com/kerdocs/donahue.html
  • "BFIC - Short for 'Best Friend Identity Cluster', the formal name of a Keristan family. A BFIC (pronounced 'bee-fick') starts with a group originator and grows to a maximum of 36 adults. Each member joins the group with a current intention of lifetime involvement and a nonpreferential feeling of deep affection for all other members." http://www.kerista.com/kerdocs/glossary.html

The word polyfidelity is commonly regarded as a form of group marriage in the polyamory community. For example:

  • "Kerista advocated for a highly structured form of group marriage among sexually closed groups, and invented the term 'polyfidelity' for this arrangement." http://www.lovemore.com/history.php
  • "Polyfidelity. A form of polyamory involving a closed group marriage (or marriage-like relationship), in which all adult members are considered primary to each other. As coined by Kerista community (1971-1991), this also included the expectation that all adults of compatible sexual orientations would be sexual with each other, but today many polyfides do not expect this." http://www.aphroweb.net/polyterms.htm see also http://ncpoly.org/PolyTerms.html
  • "Polyfidelity, which involves multiple romantic relationships with sexual contact restricted to specific partners in a group (which may include all members of that group) (e.g. group marriage)." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyamory

Other published sources also describe polifidelity as group marriage. For example:

References

  1. ^ Kerista
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ [2]
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