The Risks of Protest

The Rev. Joseph Schneiders, pastor of the First Unitarian Church of South Bend, Ind., is not exactly the most popular figure in his politically conservative town. He has held antiwar meetings in the church, counseled youths on how to avoid the draft, been arrested with Negroes at a sit-in. Last July he invited Milwaukee's Father William Groppi and a contingent of his followers down to join a series of Black Power demonstrations in South Bend. Less than a month later, an arsonist hurled a Molotov cocktail at Schneiders' church, and half of it was destroyed by fire. The Insurance Company of North America duly covered the $40,000 worth of damage--but then canceled the congregation's policy on the ground that the church was a likely target for similar attacks in the future.

Currently, First Unitarian has no insurance at all, since it has been turned down by at least 13 other companies. Nor is it the only congregation with that problem: a number of churches that have been involved in antiwar activities have also had their policies canceled because the insurance companies fear the buildings might be set afire, bombed or otherwise damaged.

After Boston's Arlington Street Unitarian-Universalist Church accorded sanctuary last May to a draft resister and an AWOL soldier, the American Employers' Insurance Co. canceled the church's $1,400,000 property damage coverage. The congregation has failed to find a new underwriter. Westchester Fire Insurance Co. of New York dropped $256,000 worth of policies on the Unitarian Church of the Mediator in Providence, R.I., after the company learned that the congregation intended to offer sanctuary to draft resisters (it did, in fact, shelter two in June).

So far, none of the churches affected are letting actuarial worries curb their activism. Says the Rev. Albert Q. Perry, pastor of the Church of the Mediator: "We can always meet in a barn. But we can't meet anywhere if we haven't got the principles." As a stopgap solution, the Arlington Street congregation has instituted its own fire watch: volunteers from the parish take turns patrolling the church every night.

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