Murfreesboro Mayor Shane McFarland, along with a group of faith leaders, released a video statement Friday in response to the White Lives Matter rally on Oct. 28.

"I think the best thing that I can say as a mayor is we are Murfreesboro and we are one community," said McFarland, who is joined on the video by six local pastors who serve as his personal advisory council.

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Faith leaders represented in the video include Vincent Windrow, Olive Branch Church; James McCarroll, First Baptist Church, East Castle; Brady Cooper, New Vision Baptist Church; Corey Trimble, Experience Community Church; David Young, North Boulevard Church of Christ; and Allen Jackson, World Outreach Church.

"We are diverse, we are strong."

"We detest inequality, we abhor prejudice and we denounce injustice."

"We are a community that serves others and the world."

"We extend grace to those with whom we agree and to those with whom we do not."

"We refrain from violence of fists, tongue and heart."

"We are Murfreesboro and we stand together."

"We are Murfreesboro strong."

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"I think the premise of the video is to be able to show, as a community, we are an extremely diverse community. We are a united community. And no matter what happens from a group that comes from outside our community, they are not representatives of the residents of Murfreesboro," McFarland told The Daily News Journal.

Murfreesboro is not immune to controversy. Over the last seven years, the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro has been the center of controversy that drew national attention, including multiple incidents of vandalism.

Two years ago the League of the South organized a protest in downtown Murfreesboro, much like the one happening on Saturday, although the response in 2015 was nowhere near what it is this time.

Because of these types of issues facing the growing community, McFarland said he assembled this group of pastors to "have those tough discussions" about hot-button issues.

He turned to that group to address the pending rally, too.

"If something bad happens this weekend and it makes national news, I don't want people to think (the outsiders) represent our community. I believe that's a false narrative about our town," said Trimble, whose technology team at Experience Community Church produced the video. "I think it was most important to show our community is pretty united in a lot of ways and we do a pretty good job.

"Murfreesboro has a loving culture and (the hate speech) is not us."

Reach reporter Nancy De Gennaro at 615-278-5148 or degennaro@dnj.com and follow her on Twitter @NanDeGennaro.

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