Put Your Hands on the Screen

And millions do. Not to be healed. But to be hardened.

Once you realize that SOWS is an irrational construct and look at it in the same frame as religion, then the support for MAGA and Trump all begins to make sense. Trump is the Savior come to show the faithful the Way. Except his “way” represents a false premise, mythmaking at its most irrational.

✋ Put Your Hands on the Screen

They gather in stadiums, not sanctuaries. They chant slogans, not scripture. They raise their hands—not in praise of the divine, but in allegiance to a man. And still, the voice booms from the screen: “Do you believe? Do you receive? Then put your hands on the screen!”

This is not religion. This is ritualized grievance. This is the gospel of SOWS—Systems of Oppression, Wealth, and Supremacy—dressed in red hats and camouflage, baptized in cable news and conspiracy.

Like the revival tents of the 1920s, the MAGA movement is a spectacle of salvation. But the savior is not the Christ—it is the Trump. The theology is not grace—it is grievance. The congregation does not cling to God and guns out of faith, but out of fear. Fear of change. Fear of pluralism. Fear of a world where their dominance is no longer divine.

In the mold of Elmer Gantry, this movement sells redemption at a profit. It promises healing through humiliation, prosperity and power through persecution. And like the televangelists before them—McPherson, Osteen, Bakker—the MAGA prophets preach from pulpits made of pixels, asking not for prayer, but for loyalty.

So again, the call goes out: “Put your hands on the screen.” And millions do. Not to be healed. But to be hardened.

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🎪 From Tent Revivals to Stadium Rallies

In the 1920s, Aimee Semple McPherson filled revival tents with spectacle. She preached with theatrical flair, staged elaborate faith healings, and turned the Angelus Temple into a spiritual amphitheater. Her sermons were broadcast over the radio, her image printed in newspapers—faith became performance, and salvation became a brand. The Media writ large is complicit. Without Media there is no McPherson, no Trump, no Osteen et. al.

Fast-forward a century, and Joel Osteen stands in a former basketball arena, smiling through a million-dollar suit. His gospel is prosperity, his pulpit is a stage, and his congregation is a consumer base. “Believe and receive,” he says. But what’s received is not grace—it’s wealth, status, and self-affirmation.

Now enter Trump.

His rallies echo the revival format:

• A charismatic figure at the center

• A crowd hungry for affirmation

• A message of redemption through loyalty

• A promise of restoration— “Make America Great Again”

But this isn’t Christianity. It’s SOWS theology: a belief system rooted in White Supremacy, grievance, and domination. The MAGA faithful don’t worship Christ—they worship control. Their altar is the ballot box, their sacrament is the meme, and their scripture is the slogan.

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🎭 The Gospel According to Gantry

Sinclair Lewis saw it coming. In Elmer Gantry, he gave us a preacher who was less prophet than profiteer—charismatic, cunning, and utterly hollow. Gantry didn’t believe in salvation; he believed in spectacle. He didn’t preach to uplift; he preached to ascend—socially, financially, politically.

The MAGA movement is Gantry’s gospel writ large.

Its leaders speak in tongues of grievance. Its rituals are rallies, its hymns are chants, its sacraments are merchandise. And its theology? A twisted trinity:

• Supremacy disguised as patriotism

• Wealth disguised as blessing

• Oppression disguised as tradition

Trump, like Gantry, is not a preacher of faith but a performer of power. He sells redemption through domination, healing through humiliation, and community through exclusion. And the congregation—hungry for certainty in a chaotic world—receives it as gospel.

But this gospel is not divine. It is SOWS theology: a system that sanctifies hierarchy, monetizes loyalty, and weaponizes belief.