{"id":5508,"date":"2023-01-31T13:51:47","date_gmt":"2023-01-31T18:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=5508"},"modified":"2023-01-31T13:51:47","modified_gmt":"2023-01-31T18:51:47","slug":"religious-complaint-forces-us-marine-academy-to-cover-up-painting-of-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2023\/01\/religious-complaint-forces-us-marine-academy-to-cover-up-painting-of-jesus.html","title":{"rendered":"Religious Complaint Forces US Marine Academy to Cover Up Painting of Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"
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U.S. Coast Guard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) in New York has been forced to cover up a massive painting of Jesus with a white curtain after complaints from an advocacy group,\u00a0<\/span>The Military Religious Freedom Foundation<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(MRFF). The Foundation\u2019s mission is \u201censuring that all members of the United States Armed Forces fully receive the Constitutional guarantees of religious freedom to which they and all Americans are entitled by virtue of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.\u201d The MRFF\u2019s founder, Michael \u201cMikey\u201d Weinstein, sent a\u00a0<\/span>letter<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to the USMMA\u2019s Vice Admiral Joanna M. Noonan on January 10 in regards to the painting, stating he was representing 17 complainants of various faith and secular backgrounds and wrote, \u201cI come to you this day to demand that the USMMA, which you currently command as its Superintendent, expeditiously remove a massive, sectarian painting illustrating the supremacy of Jesus Christ from the so-called \u201cElliot M. See Room\u201d located inside of Wiley Hall, which serves as an administrative building at USMMA.\u201d He added, \u201cAdmiral Nunan, I don\u2019t want to belabor the brutally obvious point that this extremely large painting of Jesus is absolutely antithetical and destructive, as it is currently displayed, to the maintenance of good order, morale, discipline, and unit cohesion at USMMA, especially to non-Christians under your command.\u201d Weinstein also drew upon Noonan\u2019s experience in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) to plead her understanding of the need to remove the painting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The painting in question, according to a statement by the <\/span>USMMA<\/span><\/a>, is a 10\u2019x19\u2019 artwork entitled \u201cJesus on the Water,\u201d painted in 1944 by marine Lt. Hunter Wood, USMS. It displays a lifeboat of midshipmen adrift on the seas with Jesus walking on water nearby. The chapel originally hung in a basic training school chapel in California before being moved to the USMMA in New York. The room it is currently in had formerly been an interfaith chapel until 1961. One of Weinstein\u2019s main objections to the painting was that the room is now used for various meetings and disciplinary councils and that the painting \u201cclearly projects the sectarian supremacy of Jesus Christ.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Vice Admiral Noonan was quick to respond to Weinstein\u2019s request, stating she \u201chad already identified similar concerns with this painting.\u201d Although Weinstein asked for the painting to be moved to a more appropriate location, she stated it was too large to be moved anywhere else and that the painting would be covered with a curtain and a plaque would be made to discuss the painting\u2019s historical significance. Weinstein told the <\/span>Christian Post<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that he is satisfied with the result. \u201cWe feel that the use of the curtain covering the painting will serve to create even more positive teachable moments when observers inevitably ask why it is there at all and what is underneath,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Not everyone is pleased with the decision. A USMMA alum identified as Peter Lynch has started a <\/span>petition<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to have the painting uncovered. \u201cThe decision to cover the painting was made with no opportunity for discussion,\u201d Lynch wrote. He also noted the historicity of the painting, writing, \u201cThe painting is part of the legacy of the institution and has been present in Wiley Hall undisturbed since 1944.\u201d He also added that the covering of a historical item that includes religious imagery is a violation of a Supreme Court precedent. As of this writing, the petition has over 3500 signatures.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) in New York has been forced to cover up a massive painting of Jesus with a white curtain after complaints from an advocacy group,\u00a0The Military Religious Freedom Foundation\u00a0(MRFF). The Foundation\u2019s mission is \u201censuring that all members of the United States Armed Forces fully receive the Constitutional guarantees of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":5514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nReligious Complaint Forces US Marine Academy to Cover Up Painting of Jesus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has filed complaints for a painting of Jesus to be covered up at the United States Merchant Marine Academy.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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