Banks Calls on Buttigieg to ‘Correct’ Merchant Marine Academy’s Coverup of Jesus Painting

A sign at the entrance to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y., welcomes visitors, on Sept. 13, 2016. Frank Eltman/AP Photo

Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) is calling on Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to act after a historic painting of Jesus on the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy’s (USMMA) campus was covered up.

The 1944 painting, entitled “Christ on the Water,” depicts Jesus standing on the ocean with his arms outstretched as merchant mariners drift in a lifeboat nearby, presumably after being torpedoed during World War II.