SMU students, faculty and staff gained a deeper awareness of the challenges faced by families and individuals experiencing homelessness during this year’s Cooper Peace and Justice Lecture, Prophets at the Margins: Faith, Housing and the Fight for Dignity.
The event, co-sponsored by the Simmons School of Education and Human Development and SMU’s Office of the Chaplain and Religious Life, featured four faith leaders from local congregations and nonprofit organizations serving people who are unhoused or at risk of losing housing.
Panelists included:
– Rev. Richie Butler, St. Luke Community United Methodist Church and Project Unity
– Bill Holston, Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center
– Heather Mustain, Wilshire Baptist Church
– Wayne Walker, OurCalling
Each speaker shared firsthand accounts of their work and reflected on how compassion, courage and faith inform their response to the growing crisis of homelessness.
Audience members learned that many people in North Texas struggle with basic needs and depend on food pantries and shelters for daily survival — and that it can take just one job loss, illness or deportation for a family to lose its home.
The Cooper Lecture emphasized that faith, justice and housing are deeply interconnected, and that moral courage begins close to home. Through the stories of advocates, pastors and community leaders, listeners came to understand that housing is not merely an economic or political issue, but a sacred one — rooted in dignity and belonging.
The panel revealed that charity alone is not enough; true transformation requires prophetic leadership that challenges systems while offering compassion. Attendees heard that faith communities can serve as catalysts for justice and healing, and that being “prophetic” means showing mercy in action, building relationships, advocating for equitable policy, and affirming that every person deserves not just shelter, but home.
In addition to the panel discussion, attendees viewed a pop-up art exhibit featuring works by SMU professor Willie Baronet, creator of We Are All Homeless, an ongoing art and social project that transforms cardboard signs from people experiencing homelessness into powerful visual statements on dignity and belonging. The exhibit also included Humanizing the Homeless, a series of black-and-white portraits by photographer Leah den Bok.
“It was a joy to collaborate with Simmons and Dr. Robinson-Doyle to reintroduce the Cooper Peace and Justice Lecture at SMU,” said the Rev. Lisa Garvin, SMU chaplain and minister to the university. “This year’s lecture highlighted the importance of charity and justice — caring for our neighbors and working for systems that support abundant life for all.”
Dr. Laura Robinson-Doyle coordinated and emceed the event. “The Cooper Lecture reminded us that the margins were never as distant as we imagined. They have always lived beside us, sometimes within us. Bringing this work into the light showed that being a prophet was never about standing on a mountain shouting truth; it was about standing in the everyday, loving well, noticing the unseen, and moving toward need with mercy. We were all called to be prophets, each of us capable of being the hands and feet of love in a world that often forgets how near our neighbors truly are.”
The lecture took place Oct. 23 in Frances Anne Moody Hall at SMU.