Story by Heather Hahn, photos by Kathy L. Gilbert
Oct. 30, 2017 | SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)
The Rev. Laurie Raulston said she came to counter a white-supremacist rally in Shelbyville because she needed to live out her baptismal vows.“I did my first baptism last week, and I didn’t feel like I could ask a teenage girl to resist evil, injustice and oppression if I’m not doing it myself,” said Raulston, the pastor of Normandy United Methodist Church, about 12 miles from the protest site.She was among an ecumenical group of a dozen or so clergy who braved a cold, blustery morning to confront slogans of hate with hymns of praise.
Throughout the week, people across Tennessee anxiously braced for two “White Lives Matter” rallies Oct. 28. The same white-supremacist groups whose protest turned violent in Charlottesville, Virginia, had scheduled demonstrations in Shelbyville and Murfreesboro in protest of refugee resettlement and immigration.
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