Crowd ERUPTS In Applause When Sec Duffy Mentions The Jesus Painting

There was no hiding the anti-faith bias of the Biden administration. Any time there was an opportunity to show hostility to traditional Christian expressions of faith rather than celebration or neutrality, they always seemed to take it.

A perfect example of this was how they handled the painting of Jesus rescuing Merchant Mariners at the US Merchant Marine Academy.

Sean Duffy has replaced Preachy Pete Buttigieg in overseeing Transportation. It would have been perfectly natural to leave the painting alone. But no. First, a curtain was placed over it. Then it was hidden away in a basement that is prone to flooding.

Here’s the full painting…

With a closer look at detail in the figure at the back of the lifeboat:

It’s not a small painting, and it has a story, per the Merchant Marine academy website:

Our “Christ on the Water” painting is located below the main sanctuary, in the lower rear hallway of the Mariners’ Memorial Chapel, outside the Protestant and Catholic chapels.

The Painting

Also known as “Jesus and Lifeboat,” this painting by noted marine artist LT Hunter Wood, USMS, portrays merchant seamen adrift in a lifeboat, presumably after being torpedoed. Wood painted it in 1944 for the chapel being built at the U.S. Merchant Marine Cadet Basic School in San Mateo, California, as a tribute to all merchant seamen, especially to cadet-midshipmen (as they were then known) who had been torpedoed during World War II. The figure holding the tiller wears a midshipman’s combination cover (hat) with its distinctive anchor device. Other notable details include the tattoos on the arms of one seafarer. Somewhat unusually, the painting is on what appears to be sail canvas, likely used marine paints, and the varnish seems to have been spar varnish. Wartime shortages of artist supplies partly explain these materials, but Wood seems to have liked using marine materials for his artwork. To date, no statement by the artist has emerged about this painting to explain its composition, but maritime historian Frank Braynard described it as Wood’s most ambitious work. Due to budgetary constraints, the San Mateo campus closed in 1947, and the painting came to Kings Point, where it was installed in the chapel in Wiley Hall, which served as the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy’s interfaith chapel from 1942 to 1961. The painting remained there for decades until the Academy moved the artwork to the lower level of the Mariners’ Memorial Chapel in 2023, after having it professionally conserved and cleaned.

Moved it to the lower level is a very polite way of saying ‘banished it to the basement’. And Duffy wants it returned to its place of prominence.

Midshipmen at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy erupted in applause when @SecDuffy demanded a painting of Jesus saving merchant mariners be restored.

The Biden admin put a curtain over the painting before putting it in a flood-prone basement.

"Let's bring Him up!" pic.twitter.com/qQvLKXKE5r

— Jon Brown (@JonBrownDC) April 9, 2025

Judging by the response of the crowd, so does everyone else.