History Main / TheScourgeOfGod

* The infamous [[ReligionOfEvil Westboro Baptist]] [[BeliefMakesYouStupid Church]] considers all natural disasters and actions committed by people to be God's will. They believe everything from earthquakes, volcanos, and tsunamis to car crashes and mass shootings to part God's punishment for society's growing acceptance of homosexuality, abortion, other religions, adultery, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the selling of Swedish vacuum cleaners]]. Their protests are just their way of saying "[[JerkAss thanks.]]"

* The infamous [[ReligionOfEvil Westboro Baptist]] [[BeliefMakesYouStupid Church]] considers all natural disasters and actions committed by people to be God's will. They believe everything from earthquakes, volcanos, and tsunamis to car crashes and mass shootings to part God's punishment for society's growing acceptance of homosexuality, abortion, other religions, adultery, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the selling of Swedish vacuum cleaners]]. Their protests are just their way of saying "thanks."

* The original TropeNamer was AtillaTheHun, who ripped through the Goths and Romans like they were tissue paper in the early 400s AD. Rather, he was called the scourge of God by his adversaries [[InvertedTrope instead of coming to the conclusion himself.]]

* Subverted by SimonRGreen in ''Beyond the Blue Moon''. Contrary to popular belief, the Walking Man couldn't care less about minor vices. He reserves punishment for real monsters -- like a pedophile/child-murderer/necromancer, who gets beaten into a barely recognizable corpse...bare-handed.

* In ''{{Novel1}}'', we find out that [[spoiler: the Sentiralites are God's punishment.]]

** Sebastian the Inquisitor claims to have once believed himself to be such, pursuing a murderous course of action while believing himself to be TheChosenOne. [[TouchedByVorlons The Vorlons abducted him]] and taught him [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone the error of his ways.]] His punishment is that he spends the rest of his [[WhoWantsToLiveForever very long life]] ''only'' being allowed to torture and kill people by way of testing their worthiness. [[DeathSeeker He hopes they will allow him to die one day.]]

** Sebastion The Inquisitor claims to have once believed himself to be such, perusing a murderous course of action believing himself to be TheChosenOne. [[TouchedByVorlons The Vorlons abduct him]] and teach him [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone the error of his ways.]] His punishment is that he spends the rest of his life ''only'' being allowed to torture and kill people by way of testing their worthiness. [[DeathSeeker He hopes they will allow him to die one day.]]
--> '''Sebastian:''' Good luck to you in your holy cause, Captain Sheridan. May your choices have better results than mine. Remembered not as a messenger, remembered not as a reformer, not as a prophet, not as a hero… [[WhatYouAreInTheDark not even as Sebastian.]] [[WhamLine Remembered only…]] [[spoiler: [[JackTheRipper as Jack.]]]]

->''" I really believe that [[StrawmanPolitical the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way]] — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen.""''
-->-- '''Jerry Falwell''' on how liberals caused 9/11 with their dirty liberal ways.

* Franchise/{{Godzilla}} is the 164-foot, fire-breathing, ImmuneToBullets sublimated-god embodiment of this trope.

->''"I am the punishment of God. If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you."''
-->-- '''GenghisKhan''' (attributed)

** In fact, we could make an entire list of proclamations by religious groups or televangelists that some disaster or another (9/11, Katrina, the Haitian earthquake) was divine punishment for the sins of its victims. Pat Robertson and Fred Phelps are particularly infamous for this.

* Invoked by Ronald Schaefer who wrote a history of the strategic bombing campaign of WorldWarII called [[http://www.amazon.com/Wings-Judgment-American-Bombing-World/dp/019505640X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293159760&sr=8-1 ''Wings of Judgement'']].

* ''[[VideoGame/EternalDarkness Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem]]'': At the culmination of Roberto's chapter, the warlord that hired him [[spoiler:Pious Augustus]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=AtIOphn53k4#t=54s speaks the line]] as he lets people fall to their death to become part of the Pillar of Flesh, right before he allows Roberto to make his [[BuriedAlive greatest contribution]] to the project.
* This is the name of the Hunnic Unique Power in ''[[VideoGame/Civilization]]''. The Huns can raze cities at double speed, and gain extra production from pastures. They also have two unique units: The Battering Ram, which is really good at attacking cities ([[CripplingOverspecialization and nothing else]]), and the Horse Archer, which can be made without having any Horse resources. Don't ask how this works.

It is especially notable and ironic that even director JohnCarpenter, who essentially caused the "boom" in the masked slasher genre by making the film ''[[Film/{{Halloween 1978}} Halloween]]'', was often mistaken to have been making a statement about promiscuity. Quite the opposite in fact, Carpenter has said on many occasions; the characters who were picked off during or after sex were only so treated because they were distracted and not concentrating on what was happening, not because he wanted to make any sort of moral statement. The main survivor of the teens in the film survived despite having partaken in illicit drugs earlier in the film, for example, but was collected enough to survive a run-in with a masked maniac (with a fortunate chance stop-in of a psychiatrist with a vendetta, armed with a gun, who ended the encounter and saved her life). Similarly, in the first ''[[Film/FridayThe13th1980 Friday the 13th]]'', the survivor partakes in illicit drugs and, in the original script, a premarital affair. The survivor being a chaste and pure character is something that has occurred with the {{Flanderization}} of the genre.

* Back in TheEighties, a lot of conservative Christian groups proclaimed that [[ThePlague AIDS]] was punishment for homosexuality and drug use. This stopped once straight people and non-junkies (most notably [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_White Ryan White]]) started getting AIDS too, and especially once it became a public health catastrophe in Africa.

->''"I am the Scourge of God. If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you."''
-->-- '''AttilaTheHun''' and '''GenghisKhan''' (attributed)

%% One quote is sufficient. Please place additional entries on the Quotes tab. %%

* The original TropeNamer was AtillaTheHun, who ripped through the Goths and Romans like they were tissue paper in the early 400s AD.

** In fact, we could make an entire list of proclamations by conservative religious groups or televangelists that some disaster or another (9/11, Katrina, the Haitian earthquake) was divine punishment for the sins of its victims. Pat Robertson and Fred Phelps are particularly infamous for this.
* Lincoln suggests this was the divine purpose behind TheAmericanCivilWar in his second inaugural address. The speech is chock full of biblical references, and this passage hammers the point home: "...if God wills that it [the war] continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'" It's a pretty chilling speech, considering most people on both sides of the war thought they had the blessing of the Almighty on their side (see: Battle Hymn of the Republic).

* Harvey Dent from ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' begins as something like this in his conversion to the 'Fallen Angel' of Two-Face, but as the story reaches its climax beings to subvert the trope. He begins with those of with the most guilt and least sympathetic motivation (The Joker, Det. Wertz, Maroni) and moves on until he begins to punish those who are only questionably guilty or downright innocent.

* The BigBad of ''Blood and Bone'' quotes Genghis Khan's pleasure of killing a man, riding his horse, taking his crops, having his way with his woman, leaving no one alive to mourn the dead; and the protagonist in return quotes that line at the top of the page. The antagonist thinks this is just to show that he also knows Genghis Khan but he really [[DevilInPlainSight means what he says]].
* The protagonist in ''Faster'' gives off a line relating to this trope after a man he killed realizes his wife was warning that he had it coming to him.

* Baron von Rothbart in ''The Black Swan'' (Creator/MercedesLackey's retelling of ''Theatre/SwanLake'') captured the maidens and turned them into swans (ostensibly) because they had been unfaithful to men (their husbands or fathers).

* ''[VideoGame/EternalDarkness Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem]]'': At the culmination of Roberto's chapter, the warlord that hired him [[spoiler:Pious Augustus]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=AtIOphn53k4#t=54s speaks the line]] as he lets people fall to their death to become part of the Pillar of Flesh, right before he allows Roberto to make his [[BuriedAlive greatest contribution]] to the project.

A close relative of KarmicDeath, except that victims of The Scourge Of God generally aren't [[AssholeVictim Asshole Victims]], instead being "guilty" of comparatively minor foibles. One is left with the impression that the BigBad, whomever they are, is the arbiter of some decidedly twisted god's justice, and that those who perished are somehow supposed to have deserved their fate. Occasionally, though, the "guilt" of these crimes can spill over to the innocent as either a parable for these original sins being so bad that others suffer too, or to include an AnyoneCanDie vibe.

It is especially notable and ironic that even director JohnCarpenter, who essentially caused the "boom" in the masked slasher genre by making the film ''Film/{{Halloween 1978}}'', was often mistaken to have been making a statement about promiscuity. Quite the opposite in fact, Carpenter has said on many occasions; the characters who were picked off during or after sex were only so treated because they were distracted and not concentrating on what was happening, not because he wanted to make any sort of moral statement. The main survivor of the teens in the film survived despite having partaken in illicit drugs earlier in the film, for example, but was collected enough to survive a run-in with a masked maniac (with a fortunate chance stop-in of a psychiatrist with a vendetta, armed with a gun, who ended the encounter and saved her life). Similarly, in the first ''Film/FridayThe13th1980'', the survivor partakes in illicit drugs and, in the original script, a premarital affair. The survivor being a chaste and pure character is something that has occurred with the {{Flanderization}} of the genre.

* Or, of course, there is ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'', the 164-foot, fire-breathing, ImmuneToBullets sublimated-god embodiment of this trope.
* Harvey Dent from ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', begins as something like this in his conversion to the 'Fallen Angel' of Two-Face, but as the story reaches its climax beings to subvert the trope. He begins with those of with the most guilt and least sympathetic motivation (The Joker, Det. Wertz, Maroni) and moves on until he begins to punish those who are only questionably guilty or downright innocent.

* At least in the later ''FinalDestination'' movies, Death seems to wait for ridiculously minor infractions. Such as disobeying the "No food or drinks allowed" sign. (Particularly onerous when you're at a theater with the same taboo, solely to force you to pay their markups.)

* Sam, from ''Film/TrickRTreat'', is a variation on this: he's the Scourge of the Celtic god Samhaine. Hell, he probably ''is'' Samhaine. Sam targets people who don't respect Halloween. SerialKiller Steven Wilkins has a similiar agenda, but [[spoiler: he oversteps his bounds by killing an (apparent) innocent, and is then eaten by a werewolf, with Sam's implicit sanction.]]

* In John Waters' ''Film/SerialMom'', [[CuteAndPsycho Beverly Sutphin]] (Kathleen Turner) is the eponymous protagonist. She's a Scourge of God but not against violators of morality, but those sins are against propriety or etiquette, such as [[spoiler: wearing white shoes after Labor Day]].
* The BigBad of ''Blood and Bone'' quotes Ghengis Khan's pleasure of killing a man, riding his, horse, taking his crops, having his way with his woman, leaving no alive to mourn the dead and the protagonist in return quotes that line at the top of the page. The antagonist thinks this is just to show that he also knows Ghengis Khan but he really [[DevilInPlainSight means what he says]].

* [[SwanLake Baron von Rothbart]] in ''The Black Swan'' (MercedesLackey's retelling of ''SwanLake''), captured the maidens and turned them into swans (ostensibly) because they had been unfaithful to men (their husbands or fathers).
* Literature/TheBible had no small number of these, the plagues of Egypt being perhaps the best-known.
** The HorsemenOfTheApocalypse in particular, while by far not the most impressive, are sufficiently iconic to deserve a mention.
* In ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'', the Count believes himself to be God's instrument of vengeance upon his enemies. Somewhat justified considering that some of his main targets were rather naughty individuals besides betraying him. Not justified considering the Count's revenge also affects some of the enemies' innocent family members.

* In ''FinalFantasyX'', Sin seems to be this. [[spoiler:In reality, this is just a lie the Church of Yevon teaches the people of Spira.]]
* ''{{Terraria}}'': The Wall Of Flesh only appears when you chuck a voodoo doll of someone you know into a pit of lava.
* [[VideoGame/EternalDarkness Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem]]: At the culmination of Roberto's chapter, the warlord that hired him [[spoiler:Pious Augustus]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=AtIOphn53k4#t=54s speaks the line]] as he lets people fall to their death to become part of the Pillar of Flesh, right before he allows Roberto to make his [[BuriedAlive greatest contribution]] to the project.

* In {{Novel1}}, we find out that [[spoiler: the Sentiralites are God's punishment.]]