What If? Wrathful spirits of dishonored American monuments start rising up

Whitestrake Pelinal

Like a dream without a dreamer
ROB decides that Americans have been a bunch of disrespectful bastards and puts us to the test, to see if Americans as a whole can be said to believe in more than the merely temporary and material. On October 31st 2020, across the United States (and only in the United States!) the wrathful spirits of those whose monuments have been dishonored in this year rise up.

Their wrath is commensurate to the disrespect shown to their monuments:
  • A monument moved from a place of honor to a lesser location results in a disappointed and sorely vexed spirit.
  • A monument that was painted, marked up, or otherwise defaced, results in an angry spirit that can maybe be reasoned with.
  • A monument that was pissed on, carved up, destroyed, or discarded, results in a furious and unreasoning spirit seeking vengeance on all it lays eyes on.
Their wrath is focused on the municipality in which their monument resided, but will leave seeking new targets if that municipality is mostly depopulated or thoroughly ruined.

The power of these spirits is commensurate to the legend of the honored individual. On one end of the spectrum, local notables are monster-of-the-day level, and can theoretically be exorcised by any devout Holy Man. There might even be a technological solution if they stick around long enough. On the other end of the spectrum, historical figures that all literate Americans know of are akin to a powerful (but not world-breaking) Marvel mutant or superhuman, and require either the intercession of a devout Holy Man of similar renown, or a ruinous technological solution if they stick around long enough.
 

Whitestrake Pelinal

Like a dream without a dreamer
So do multiple statues of the same person produce one composite ghost or an army of clones?
One spirit per statue, arising in the specific municipality each statue was located in before it was defaced.

Worldwide ghost disaster emanating from the Middle East.
In this scenario, ROB is not targeting the middle east, just the burgers who permitted a whole bunch of monuments to be defaced or destroyed. Thread title edited for clarity.
 

King Krávoka

An infection of Your universe.
In this scenario, ROB is not targeting the middle east, just the burgers who permitted a whole bunch of monuments to be defaced or destroyed.
The genre of threads implies an invitation to unseen consequences, so I'm saying all those martyrs, prophets and genocide victims start laying waste.

EDIT: Oh I see the specifications now. So this is another "what if something I could jack of to happened~~~" thread?
 
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Sailor.X

Cold War Veteran
Founder
Ten Godly Men and Women show up and literally Rebuke them in the Name of Jesus. Said vengeful spirits run back to the afterlife with their tails between their legs. Points at the book of Acts for examples.
 

Hlaalu Agent

Nerevar going to let you down
Founder
Ten Godly Men and Women show up and literally Rebuke them in the Name of Jesus. Said vengeful spirits run back to the afterlife with their tails between their legs. Points at the book of Acts for examples.

I doubt it would work, because it would not be in the name of Jesus at all.
 

Hlaalu Agent

Nerevar going to let you down
Founder
Points at past history of working against supernatural creatures. There is a reason it has been done for over 2000 years.

So falsely using the name of Jesus would be allow those dishonoring the dead to escape retribution? That doesn't sound right to me.

And I'd wager actually trying to make restitution to the beings might allow them to rest peacefully @Alathon ?
 

Scottty

Well-known member
Founder
Points at past history of working against supernatural creatures. There is a reason it has been done for over 2000 years.

Yes, but it only works if you're Christian.

If unbelievers try to use the Name of Jesus to drive out spirits, the rests are... not the same.

Acts 19:11-20:
God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out.
But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, “I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.
And the evil spirit answered and said to them, “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?”
And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in Ephesus; and fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified.
Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.
 

Sailor.X

Cold War Veteran
Founder
So falsely using the name of Jesus would be allow those dishonoring the dead to escape retribution? That doesn't sound right to me.

And I'd wager actually trying to make restitution to the beings might allow them to rest peacefully @Alathon ?
Dude read some of the old work of the Apostles and the Early church and some of the later writings from other churches around the world on the subject. You are showing ignorance on this subject.

Yes, but it only works if you're Christian.

If unbelievers try to use the Name of Jesus to drive out spirits, the rests are... not the same.

Acts 19:11-20:
God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out.
But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, “I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.
And the evil spirit answered and said to them, “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?”
And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in Ephesus; and fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified.
Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.
I said some Christians would be the ones doing it. Look at my original post.
 

Shipmaster Sane

You have been weighed
Heres the problem, all someone has to do is take the confederate ghosts aside and explain to them the current "score" and they'll wink and start chanting for black lives matter too. Because thats literally what happened.
"We have to get them back on the reservation. We'll have these niggers voting democrat for two hundred years."


The Democrats are the Confederacy wearing a pair of glasses.
 

Whitestrake Pelinal

Like a dream without a dreamer
Ten Godly Men and Women show up and literally Rebuke them in the Name of Jesus. Said vengeful spirits run back to the afterlife with their tails between their legs. Points at the book of Acts for examples.
I suppose this is a perfectly plausible answer, even if it disregards part of the scenario, because that part of the scenario,

"On the other end of the spectrum, historical figures that all literate Americans know of are akin to a powerful (but not world-breaking) Marvel mutant or superhuman, and require either the intercession of a devout Holy Man of similar renown, or a ruinous technological solution if they stick around long enough."

...could be considered invalid when assessing a question of spiritual might, if you hold that renown simply can't be part of the question.

Though I was going for a scenario with political considerations, where the U.S. had to go to the Pope or Dalai Lama or other non-American figures for aid. Also, a potential for hilarious imagery.

So falsely using the name of Jesus would be allow those dishonoring the dead to escape retribution? That doesn't sound right to me.

And I'd wager actually trying to make restitution to the beings might allow them to rest peacefully @Alathon ?
In the lesser and moderate cases, yes. In the most severe cases, where monuments were torn apart or defiled with bodily fluids, no.
 

Shadepen97

Well-known member
I wonder who the biggest theologians of renown there are in the United States. We'll feel the vacancy of Jerry Falwell and Billy Graham more then ever. Does being the Pastor of a Megachurch or a television show make one a religious figure of more renown? :unsure: :p
What about David Wood? He is an ex-convict and ex-atheist who managed to get a Doctorates in Philosophy and spent the last decade as a semi/mostly public christian scholar working to convert many people of other faith's, primarily muslims, to Jesus Christ. His almost nightly live-streams get tens of thousands of viewers each in the past few months and a lot of his videos have hundreds of thousands to millions of views on youtube, he has written a few books and managed to get interviews on almost every news network in the US.

Edit: The argument could be made that he is mostly famous in the Middle East and the Islamaphillic European Union by managing to be relevant enough in the Christian VS Muslim theological conflict to have several muslim philosophers apparently held in high regard come on to his live-streams.

Edit: Somehow did not notice reducing the number of his live-stream viewer count by two order of magnitudes.
 
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Whitestrake Pelinal

Like a dream without a dreamer
I wonder who the biggest theologians of renown there are in the United States. We'll feel the vacancy of Jerry Falwell and Billy Graham more then ever. Does being the Pastor of a Megachurch or a television show make one a religious figure of more renown? :unsure: :p
Yes, but the 'gotcha' is that they have to be legit. They can't be shysters, they have to actually be working in service to a higher power.

So while Joel Osteen has lots of renown, there is also a chance that if he decides to show up and attempt to rebuke an angry spirit, it will step on him and he goes 'splort'. I don't actually know if Osteen is for real, but the mansions and private jet raise some doubt, which is again part of why I set up the scenario this way. It leaves open to discussion who is genuinely holy.
 

Scottty

Well-known member
Founder
Yes, but the 'gotcha' is that they have to be legit. They can't be shysters, they have to actually be working in service to a higher power.

So while Joel Osteen has lots of renown, there is also a chance that if he decides to show up and attempt to rebuke an angry spirit, it will step on him and he goes 'splort'. I don't actually know if Osteen is for real, but the mansions and private jet raise some doubt, which is again part of why I set up the scenario this way. It leaves open to discussion who is genuinely holy.

I think you'd find that the set of genuinely holy people and the set of famous media people have a very small intersection.
 

Whitestrake Pelinal

Like a dream without a dreamer
I think you'd find that the set of genuinely holy people and the set of famous media people have a very small intersection.
That's certainly the common wisdom, and I would consider it a plausible answer that there simply aren't any Holy Men on earth with the same order of magnitude of fame as George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. In which case the scenario could drag on for a long time until a ruinous technological solution is found.
 

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