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FOR THE WIN!!! Merchant Marine Academy is moving giant Jesus to the chapel! [1]

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Date: 2023-02-20  

For those who have been following the story of the ginormous — and ginormously unconstitutional — painting of Jesus in the administrative building at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA), and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation’s (MRFF) demand to the Academy to correct this display of Christian preferentialism, nothing more is needed than the statement below, issued by the USMMA on Friday.

For those who haven’t been following the story, back in January, MRFF, acting on behalf of seventeen USMMA midshipmen, staff, faculty, and alumni (a group that has grown to twenty-six), sent an email to USMMA’s superintendent, Vice Admiral Joanna M. Nunan, demanding that the paining be moved to the Academy’s chapel. Vice Admiral Nunan, citing the massive size of the painting as the reason it couldn’t be moved elsewhere, responded with an alternate solution — to cover the painting with curtains (which was immediately done) that would hide the painting during official Academy events but could be opened for those who wanted to view it. MRFF and its USMMA clients were satified with this solution, as I wrote in my January 11 post U.S. Merchant Marine Academy to cover ginormous Jesus painting in administrative building.

But then five MAGA congressmen stuck their Christian nationalist noses into the matter, four of them writing to Vice Admiral Nunan on February 9, telling her to “Immediately return the painting to the way it was displayed” and to “Cease all effort to remove or limit displaying of the painting,” and a fifth writing to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (USMMA comes under the Department of Transportation) on February 13, telling him to “act immediately to correct” the covering of the painting. In response to these MAGA congressmen’s easily rebutted legal arguments, I rebutted their legal arguments — easily — in my February 15 post Five MAGA congressmen on a crusade to get Merchant Marine Academy ginormous Jesus painting uncovered.

Two days later, USMMA issued the following updated statement (emphasis added) on the painting, which ends by saying that giant Jesus will be moved to the chapel, as MRFF had demanded in the first place!

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/20/2154005/-FOR-THE-WIN-Merchant-Marine-Academy-is-moving-giant-Jesus-to-the-chapel

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