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Today’s blacklisted American: Jesus painting at U.S. Merchant Marine Academy covered to avoid offending others

USSMA Superintendent Vice Admiral Joanna Nunan
USSMA Superintendent Vice Admiral Joanna Nunan

They’re coming for you next: A painting showing Jesus walking on water in a room at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in New York has now been covered with a curtain because eighteen “midshipmen, faculty, staff and graduates” signed a letter of complaint.

Calling the artwork a display of “sectarian Jesus supremacy,” [Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation who represented the complainants,] noted the room in which the painting is hung is used for various administrative meetings, disciplinary hearings and other events. “The outrageousness of that Jesus painting’s display is only further exacerbated by the fact that this room is also used regularly for USMMA Honor Code violation boards where midshipmen are literally fighting for their careers, and, often even more, as they face the shameful ignominy of potential expulsion with prejudice if found guilty of USMMA Honor Code violations,” wrote Weinstein.

Weinstein told The Christian Post his clients “quite correctly believe that the display of the ‘Jesus painting’ is totally violative of the clear time, place and manner requirements of the No Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.”

The problem is that the painting was not created by the federal government. Its history is much more profound.

The 10-foot by 19-foot painting titled “Christ on the Water” depicts an image of Jesus and merchant seamen adrift in a lifeboat “presumably after being torpedoed in the Indian Ocean during World War II,” according to a USMMA spokesperson.

Also known as “Jesus and Lifeboat,” the piece was painted in 1944 by U.S. Maritime Service Lt. Hunter Wood to hang in the chapel built at the USMMA Basic School in San Mateo, California. When the San Mateo campus closed in 1947, officials say the painting came to the Academy, and was installed in its current location, which served as the Academy’s interfaith chapel from 1942 to 1961.

Note that its intended locations until 1961 had been chapels. It has since been openly displayed in this secular government location for more than a half century with no one having a problem, probably because its history was well recognized and honored. As was freedom of speech and religion.

Suddenly now, after sixty years, a bunch of intolerant thugs want it covered, its very sight too “outrageous” to contemplate. The complainants claim they represent a range of religions (Jewish, Roman Catholic, Protestant) who think it inappropriate for this painting to be displayed publicly in a government facility, as it seems to endorse Jesus as the one true religion.

I say, hogwash. Is their faith so weak that merely viewing a painting might shake it? No one was bothered by it for sixty years. I, as a non-Christian, wouldn’t give a hoot if I had to view it. I would simply look at for its history, as well as its artistic skill. I would also admire the personal faith of Hunter Wood, the person who painted it. All power to him!

Moreover, the decision to cover it was made without any debate. These whiners “demanded” it be removed, and Superintendent Vice Admiral Joanna Nunan immediately kow-towed, ordering the picture covered with a curtain.

A petition was immediately put forth protesting the decision, and within 48 had garnered more than 2,600 signatures. No matter. Nunan, who assumed command of the Merchant Marine Academy only last month, proudly states in her official bio that she has “spearhead[ed] efforts to expand diversity and inclusion in the Coast Guard.” It appears she is quite willing to bow to that crowd, and doesn’t care about things like freedom of speech and religion. For her, the heckler’s veto must always rule.

This story, like all my blacklist stories, illustrates again that it is not the censorship and oppression of one individual or idea that is the problem, but that too many Americans now reject freedom, and are quite willing to gang up on any person or idea in order to silence them or it. And because these control freaks are many, they succeed, time after time, and more and more frequently.

It is difficult to imagine the United States surviving as a free country. It is already teeming with close-minded tyrants.

Genesis cover

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23 comments

  • Gary H

    I guess that art work depicting Moby Dick sinking the Pequod would have been more fitting.

    I’m not a Christian, but walking on water is pretty cool trick. Where is the offense?

  • Alton

    Progressivism… American Marxism…

    Is a Very Jealous Religion….
    Ask the 140 million dead listed in the

    Black Book of Communism.

  • Max

    Well said Z-man, it’s reminiscent of the Taliban blowing up a Buddha, carved in a mountain side because it offended them… which brings to mind that maybe this woman should be wearing a Burka to avoid offending the Muslim troops. (or those who can’t stand to look at her)
    Radical Muslims cannot stand a thing of beauty, that’s why they cover their women from head to toe to prevent them from killing them.
    But then most societies, at one time or another, experience mass hysteria causing irrational behavior, like The crusades, pol pot killing the intellectuals, the Hutos ?killing 2 million tootsyes? burning witches, books, Romers/gypsies, mentally ill or deformed, Catholics, and Jews who believe or look different… and this is how it starts. The intolerance of the moral superiors.

    Come to think of it, I was quoting the former head of DARPA last night about her claim of the vaccines being a moral cause.
    Even a Russian orthodox priest who spoke out against lockdowns and vaccinations was just defrocked and sentenced to seven years. Russia is part of this and is doing its part. (Putin is friends and a follower of WEF Schwab…

    A local doctor would help parents out, falsifying vaccine cards so their kids can go to college or school. It will cost him everything.
    https://www.foxnews.com/us/utah-doctor-charged-destroying-covid-19-vaccines-giving-fake-shots-children-parents-request
    He’s actually a local hero now, knowing what we know now about the shots, he saved lives fulfilling his oath as a doctor, harming no one. Indicted like a war criminal!
    (but the opioid/fentanyl pain killer pushers advertise for new victims as their old patients die off)
    The death cult movement is taking over. There’s reports of an egg shortage, the chicken feed has been laced with something that’s causing the chickens to stop laying eggs. Our food supply is being contaminated.

  • Jhon B

    Hemm, if easily offended, maybe they don’t belong in the Academy. Suck it up buttercup. I hope they had a safe space for them to cower in. But I am sure they will be brave in a storm at sea.

  • Doubting Thomas

    I wonder if Admiral Nunan is so committed to Diversity, Inclusion and Equity (DIE) that she would have the painting destroyed rather that bequeath it to an organization that would cherish it? I’m thinking of the Maritime Chapel in
    Houston, Texas.

    There are other suitable Mariners Chapels in Massachusetts, California and Detroit Michigan but I feat the evil contagion these states are held under.

    I served under a Commanding Officer who graduated from USMMA and accepted a Navy commission, he is outraged at the actions of his alma mater.

  • Phill O

    “It is difficult to imagine the United States surviving as a free country. It is already teeming with close-minded tyrants.”

    Well said! Unfortunate, but well said!

  • Joe

    Max,

    The feed is not the problem – bird flu is. Egg laying hens are being destroyed by the millions to stop a contagion. I’ve seen them wipeout entire farms here in Pennsylvania. Watching a bird die from it is gruesome to watch. Of course, this puts a strain on our food supply and now makes it lucrative for the Mexican cartels to start trading in fowl goods.

  • Joe: You sent me an email recently about Quub. It did not arrive as planned. Please send again.

  • James Street

    Where’s the “Church militant” standing up to these thugs? I’ve always known this was a spiritual battle. The pure Evil gets exposed more and more:

    “Pope Benedict XVI Publishes Posthumous Book, Says Some Seminaries Have Homosexuality, Pornography Problems
    Taking aim at the United States seminaries, Benedict wrote that ‘homosexual clubs operate more or less openly’ in the current Church.”
    https://nationalfile.com/pope-benedict-xvi-publishes-posthumous-book-says-some-seminaries-have-homosexuality-pornography-problems/

  • pzatchok

    Homosexuals in the Catholic church has been a quiet secret for centuries. As long as they agreed to and adhered to not having sex they were allowed to continue with no problems.

    When it was found that they could not stop the illicit activity they were offered a chance to leave or they went to quiet closed monasteries as far away from people as possible.

    The church understood it was a place of safety for gay people all over Europe in a time that they were threatened by death in the general population.

    The Pope acknowledging this openly is nothing more that a way to bring the situation to the attention of the laity so that a little pressure from them might help to clean out the church.
    Homosexuals are safe in the modern world now, so the church does not have to protect them.

  • pzatchok

    As for the painting.

    I would just say that it is of some unknown Jew who was standing on a hidden rock.

    Maybe the lefties would be a little more forgiving or understanding if they didn’t think it was Jesus.

  • Jeff Wright

    Max—your comment about the Buddha’s gave me a thought.

    Have a copy made (put the original in a chapel)
    and have the copy in an ordinance range..specifying that if they want it removed..they have to be photographed pushing the plunger in front of a video playing of the Buddha’s destruction…call their bluff.

    They blast it…keep the original safe…and when theses worthies get canned for some other stunt…put the original back in a year or two…after the video of them pushing the plunger goes viral.

  • Max

    In pictures: 3D return for Bamiyan Buddha destroyed by Taliban
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56337042

    Now the Taliban protects the buddhas for China until they can be relocated to start mining activities as an open pit mine that will destroy everything.
    https://www.9news.com.au/world/taliban-china-militants-preserving-buddha-statues-to-win-beijing-investment-in-afghanistan/4bb858b5-8a8c-4142-8413-c8090d5f8389

    Couldn’t find the footage that shows them pushing the plunger that occurred 20 years ago….

    Joe; you are right.
    https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/egg-shortage/
    Apparently A local small farm got some cheap chicken feed that was laced with round up and it killed his chickens.
    The grain was meant to make bread for humans, but it got wet in recent storms and sold it to the farmer.

  • Edward

    I’m a bit confused. When did the merchant marine become part of the government?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Merchant_Marine

    In times of war, the Merchant Marine can be an auxiliary to the United States Navy, and can be called upon to deliver military personnel and materiel for the military.

  • Edward: You are right! I forgot entirely that this is not a government agency. As absurd as the claim of separation of church and state often is, in this case it is also stupid and groundless.

  • James Street

    Feel good video of the day: Boomers vs Antifa (2 minutes)
    Warning for violence and language.

    Antifa Gets Wrecked in Seattle by Counter-Protesters: “Unmask Them All”
    https://thelibertydaily.com/antifa-gets-wrecked-in-seattle-by-patriots-unmask-them-all/

    The start of a movement?

  • Doubting Thomas

    Robert and Edward – I don’t know if the Merchant Marine Academy MMA) is” part of the Government.” But, as I mentioned in my post, those who attend the MMA can fulfill their obligation by taking a direct commission in the USN or serving as instructors and the USN Nuclear Prototype Schools (if accepted by Naval Reactors).

    Also, the MMA is funded by the Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) and in 2023 will get $99.7 million and has received over the last 10 years, on average $83 million per year.

    You can decide if the MMA is a part of government. By the way, US DoT provides about $77 million to the six State sponsored merchant maritime academies: California Maritime Academy, Great Lakes Maritime Academy, Maine Maritime Academy, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, SUNY Maritime College, Texas A&M Maritime College.

  • Doubting Thomas: Getting government grants does not make a college a government agency. If so, every university in America would officially be one (though most today try to make believe they are, from a political standpoint).

  • Doubting Thomas

    Robert – It is not a grant. US DoT fully funds the US Merchant Marine Academy.

    To quote the DoT website:

    ” Paths to a Maritime Career – There are many paths to becoming a mariner. For some, it begins at the MARAD-run United States Merchant Marine Academy, one of the service academies. ”

    Unless you define the funding of USMA West Point, USNA Annapolis, USAFA Colorado Springs or USCGA New London as “grants” rather than federal government funding of an educational arm of the Armed Services, Kings Point NY is no different than the rest of the academies.

  • Jeff Wright

    Sailors in the Merchant Marine had death tolls up there with Omaha Beach or Tarawa thanks to the U-Boats, so I heard.

  • Cotour

    How does the Left play the game?

    They force you to defend yourself against their ideology and bog you down in the legal system which they now control:

    https://youtu.be/aLH8UwKG9Qs

    This is fundamental change, accent on “Mental”.

  • Cotour

    And while we are on the subject:

    APPRECIATE A GOOD SQUIRM?

    Bill Gates, one of the richest men on the planet: https://youtu.be/Q6DjVqklXIc 59 secs.

    The squirm says so much to me.

    He regrets having dinner with Epstein.

    And what else might he have regrets about regarding Jeoffrey Epstein?

    Who if you remember “killed himself” while in prison.

    You remember, the closed-circuit security cameras were “malfunctioning” AND the guards who were charged with watching him to make sure he did not kill himself were “asleep” in one of the very highest security federal government run prison facilities ;)

    Men hate it, but you usually can never go wrong if you listen to your wife concerning such things.

    https://cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/styles/story_page/public/2022/03/04/245267-melinda-bill-gates-jeffrey-epstein-44.jpg

  • Edward

    Doubting Thomas,
    Government funding does not make it part of the government. This may make it a service to the government, similar to a SpaceX launch, but not part of the government.

    Jeff Wright,
    I am well aware that during wartime the merchant marine were at great risk of death, maim, and injury, but that does not make the merchant marine part of the government. It just means that these are civilians in harm’s way, and their bravery should not be rewarded with restrictions on their speech, religion, or association that the Constitution protects for them.

    As with many other aspects of life, government has overstepped its authority and imposes itself in areas that the Constitution forbids it to go.

    It could be that since there are military personnel in charge, they have forgotten that they are in charge of civilian trainees, and that they have forgotten their oaths to protect and uphold the Constitution. This is easily done in Obama’s fundamentally transformed America, land of the formerly free.

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