The Robert O. Cooper Peace and Justice Fellowship Award will be presented to Barry Lynn, president of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, on Sunday.
The Cooper Award was established in 1992 to honor Robert Cooper, SMU’s associate chaplain of 27 years, upon his retirement. According to Chaplain William Finnin, the annual award is given to those who are “making a difference in the area of peace, justice, religious liberty” and who have put themselves in “position to the reigning power that makes them irritants to the status quo.”
Past recipients of the award include Sister Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking; anti-war leader Fr. Daniel Berrigan, S. J.; evangelical Baptist minister and community organizer Jim Wallis, God’s Politics; U.S. Federal Judge William Wayne Justice; and SMU’s human rights scholar, Rick Halperin, chair of Amnesty International USA.
“If you look at the folks who have received the fellowship, they are movers and shakers of the reigning political magisterium,” Finnin said.
This year’s recipient, Lynn, who is also an attorney, works with Americans United to defend the separation of church and state, and, according to a press release from the Chaplain’s office, “preserve the integrity of both religious institutions and civil government from the encroachment of right-wing civil-religion hegemony.” Americans United, established in 1947, is a non-sectarian, non-partisan organization.
The Chaplain’s office, which works in conjunction with the Dallas Peace Center and the greater Dallas Community of Churches Peacemaking Committee, spent all last spring determining the nominee for this year’s award. Several people nominated Lynn.
“This year, when so much attention has been given to voices of religious right, we decided that issues of religious liberty had become issue of prophetic concern,” Finnin said. “So we sought a person who stood as an advocate for the freedom to advocate faith but not require others’ similar allegiance.”
Finnin has been in contact with Lynn’s secretary since the summer, and she related that Lynn is “delighted to come to SMU to receive the award.”
Lynn will speak at the McCord Auditorium at 7 p.m., following an informal reception that begins at 6 p.m. and will be held in the Dallas Hall reading commons. Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Dr. Mark Chancey will introduce Lynn.
Also during the presentation, junior journalism and political science major Michelle Wigianto, founder of Students for a Better Society, will be honored as the 2005 recipient of the William K. McElvaney Peace and Justice Award.
The award encourages, supports and recognizes people who have put their own energies into serving the larger public good in ways that advance peace and justice.
“As we’ve looked over the campus, the person who has emerged repeatedly as not afraid of controversy, who has sought to create settings for creative and critical debate for important issues, who has singled out issues such as the environment and conflict resolution as important issues that we need as a community to deal with, Michelle surfaced over and over again,” Finnin said.
Wigianto will receive a plaque and a cash award for up to $500 to be used to support the type of work she has be doing thus far.
The public is invited to attend the presentation.
