With a 10-5 vote, a county commission in the US state of Tennessee rejected a resolution seeking God's mercy on the county when the time of His reckoning comes when He unleashes His wrath on America for corrupting the foundation of God's family by legalising gay marriage.
In a proceeding watched by a large crowd of same-sex marriage supporters in and outside the meeting room in Maryville, the Blount County Commission trashed the resolution filed by Commissioner Karen Miller with a majority vote, according to a Reuters report.
The members of the commission didn't even hold a debate as they quickly adjourned the meeting after the vote.
Speaking with reporters after the vote, Miller said she was stunned by the result of the vote and the action taken by her colleagues.
"I was totally in the dark," she said, adding that she was "very disappointed, because people have a right to speak."
Miller said she's not giving up and would again introduce the resolution in the commission's next meeting in Maryville, the county seat of Blount County with a population of some 27,000 about 15 miles south of Knoxville.
Miller's resolution condemned "judicial tyranny" and petitioned for "God's mercy" as she called on Tennessee to join Blount County in challenging the Supreme Court's ruling legalising gay marriage.
The resolution asked God to "pass us by in His Coming Wrath and not destroy our County as He did Sodom and Gomorrah."
A similar resolution questioning the Supreme Court's ruling but without appealing for God's mercy was approved last month in nearby Greene County. A bill has also been introduced in Tennessee's legislature calling on the state to reject the Supreme Court ruling.
The budding resistance being shown by some states to the High Court's decision appears to have been sparked by county clerk Kim Davis in Rowan, Kentucky, whose widely publicised refusal to issue marriage certificates to same-sex couples, on the ground that it violates her Christian beliefs, led to her six-day imprisonment.
Members of the Tennessee Equality Project, a gay rights group, filled the county commission's meeting room. About 100 more pro-gay supporters waited outside the building. They had been protesting throughout the day, calling on members of the commission to reject the resolution.
Ashley Abbott, a Blount County resident and a gay rights supporter, said the author of the resolution should not have mentioned God or implored divine mercy since "religion has no place at all in government."
However, Khristrine Weick, one of only two anti-gay protesters who bravely defied the mob of gay lovers outside the building, said she fully supported Miller's resolution.
"I believe if we continue to spit God in the face, we're going to get it," she said.
