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.

Created by U.S. Maritime Service’s Lt. Hunter Wood, the piece had hung uncovered at the academy’s Wiley Hall since 1947 until a curtain was draped over it last month in response to a complaint from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), a nonprofit advocacy group.

Banks, in a Feb. 13 letter obtained by Fox News, expressed “great concern” over the academy’s decision and urged Buttigieg to immediately “correct” the situation.

“In 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that historic displays with religious symbolism are not a violation of the Constitution,” Banks wrote.

“In this case, the justices defended the preservation of a large cross monument because it was erected nearly a century ago as a memorial to soldiers lost in World War I—very similar to Wood’s painting.”

The congressman, who recently announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate, further noted that more than 4,000 midshipmen, academy alumni, and local community members had signed a petition to remove the curtain covering the painting and place a plaque alongside it detailing its historic significance.

“I support their request and believe there is ample evidence that previously established legal precedent negates the ‘constitutional concerns’ of an anti-Christian activist who is so extreme that he has described the Wreaths Across America program as ‘the annual government-sanctioned desecration of non-Christian veterans,’” Banks added, referring to MRFF Founder and president Mikey Weinstein.

Prior to the painting’s coverup, Weinstein had argued that the artwork’s presence in Wiley Hall, the USMMA chief administrative building, was “in direct violation of diversity, equity, and inclusion,” and suggested that it be moved to the Mariners’ Memorial Chapel instead.

“Do you all understand how wrong this is?” Weinstein said in a statement. “To have this in that position, in that time, place, and manner, showing the supremacy, the domination, the exclusivity, the exceptionalism, the triumphalism of Jesus in the face of our 17 clients there … it’s a total affront to the Constitution.”

Notably, Wiley Hall served as the academy’s interfaith chapel from 1942 until 1961. Prior to its 1947 transfer to the building, “Christ on the Water” hung in the chapel at the USMMA Basic School in San Mateo, California.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the USMMA for comment.