The Real John Hancock

Those who watched Boston's Community Church lose the lease to its building tell the story this way:

There was an insurance company called John Hancock, and it was a proud kind of company. It was especially proud of its namesake--a bold man unafraid of opinions, who signed a document the world of his time was quick to label "subversive." So proud of him was the company that it told of his principles in full page advertisements in magazines.

There was a church called Community Church, and it was John Hancock's kind of institution. It recognized that religion was hollow without social principles, and it liked to sponsor men with ideas about society--all kinds of ideas, from conservative to radical. A few of the men had lent their ideas to groups some congressional committees had said were "subversive." But, like John Hancock, the Church was not afraid of freedom of speech. Its members liked the chance to make up its own minds. The Community Church won a respected place among Boston's institutions.

There was a columnist called Fulton Lewis, Jr., and he was as different a man from John Hancock as 180 years could produce. He called the Community Church's speakers left-wing and radical. He would have said that of John Hancock when he signed his name in broad quill strokes to the Declaration of Independence.

When he said this in the Boston Record, some readers complained to the insurance company about the Church. So the company, forgetting all it had printed about the American heritage of freedom of speech, told the Church it would not renew the lease.

It is strange that a company so proud of its heritage should suddenly forget America was weaned and strengthened on dissent and ideas. But perhaps insurance companies must be sensitive to public opinion. It probably wouldn't take too many letters to remind the company of the principles of John Hancock. The lease runs out in May, and can still be renewed.