Thursday Afternoon, July 3, 2025 | | |
MRFF DENOUNCES DOT SEC’Y SEAN DUFFY
TELLING GRADUATING USMMA MIDSHIPMEN
ONLY RELIGIOUS SAILORS ARE GOOD SAILORS;
SUP’T VICE ADMIRAL JOANNA NUNAN GONE
On Monday, June 23, Christian nationalist transportation secretary Sean Duffy delivered the commencement address to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy’s class of 2025, disgracefully proclaiming, among other revoltingly un-American things, that
only religious sailors can be good sailors.
Just one day later, on Tuesday, June 24, Duffy announced via a
DOT press release that the Academy's superintendent, Vice Admiral Joanna Nunan, is gone and the Christian nationalist-led DOT will “conduct an extensive search for new leadership of
the Academy,” which will presumably be a search for the most
gung-ho Christian admiral they can find to carry out the Christianizing of the Merchant Marine Academy and the
saving of any unsaved midshipmen from eternal damnation.
| | |
Also in this dispatch:
Veteran journalist Jonathan Larsen reports on Ralph Drollinger of Capitol Ministries, the far-right preacher whose Bible
studies are held weekly for Congress and at the
White House for cabinet members.
| | Sean Duffy delivers USMMA commencement address on June 23 | | |
MRFF OP-ED
ON DAILY KOS
Trending story on Daily Kos
U.S. Merchant Marine Academy to
become Kings Point Christian Seminary
By: MRFF Senior Research Director Chris Rodda
Thursday, July 3, 2025
|
| |
The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, NY, has a new mission.
Following the sudden departure last week of the Academy’s superintendent, Vice Admiral Joanna Nunan — whose well-know history of wokeness and anti-Christian-nationalist tendencies had always made her a poor fit for the school’s higher calling — one of the Academy’s stupendously Christian midshipmen remarked:
| | |
“It is my prayer that through this change in leadership, God is glorified on campus and we as a Christian community can move into the future as a family.”
| | |
It was Vice Admiral Nunan, after all, who agreed with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) and its Merchant Marine Academy clients back in 2023 that a gigantic painting of Jesus hovering over a lifeboat in an unavoidable conference room in the Academy’s administrative building should be moved to the Academy’s chapel.
The Academy’s midshipmen will henceforth turn their focus from learning how to sail ships to intensive Bible study and prayer because, as that painting of Jesus hovering over a lifeboat has clearly taught them, they really don’t have to worry about crashing their ships into shit because Jesus will be there to save them. Out of an abundance of caution, however, the midshipmen will be required to read the popular book How to Avoid Huge Ships, a book whose 1,400+ reviews on Amazon make clear has instructive value that is second only to the Bible.
“Sea Year,” when the Academy’s future mariners get real-life experience aboard an operating U.S.-flag merchant vessel, will be replaced by “Mission Year,” giving the midshipmen invaluable experience in bringing the lost to Jesus Christ, experience they will put to use as commissioned U.S. military officers when faced with subordinates who need to be saved.
A Christian ministry leader at the Academy rejoiced at the prospect of new, God-fearing leadership, under whose guidance the midshipmen, as future military officers, will all be “government-paid missionaries when they leave here.”
Vice Admiral Nunan’s departure came the day after transportation secretary Sean “let’s bring Jesus up from the basement” Duffy delivered the commencement address to the Academy’s class of 2025, telling the graduating midshipmen:
| | “There are 2 kinds of people in life: those who believe in God and those who think they’re God. There’s something beautiful, humbling and properly ordered about a man and woman who understands that there is a power greater than themselves. That everything is not in their control. And that they are the beloved child of a merciful God who hears their prayers.” | | Recounting his visit to the Academy in April, Duffy commented on the poor conditions he saw — tar dripping from ceilings, mold in the dorms, rusty showers with no hot water — ending his list with the thing that brought him the fame he hasn’t seen since his MTV reality TV star days: | | |
“And worst of all, I saw Jesus stuffed away in the basement.”
| | In his concluding remarks, Duffy made it clear that the only good sailor is a religious sailor: | | |
“No one knows the unpredictability and storms of nature and life like sailors. A good sailor knows that in the end, only God can calm the seas and bring them to safety. Look to that Northstar. Stay faithful and never underestimate the power of prayer.”
| | |
The foregoing has, of course, all just been satire, right? Well, unfortunately not. Much of it is actually true.
The quotes from the midshipman and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy are 100% real.
The midshipman quote is really what Midshipman Jackson Tolle (’26) — a gosh darn good Christian, as seen in his Facebook profile pic — told The Christian Post in celebration of Vice Admiral Nunan’s departure.
| | |
Very Christian Merchant Marine Academy
Midshipman Jackson Tolle (’26) Facebook profile pic
| | |
And the quotes from DOT (Department of Theocratization) secretary Sean Duffy’s commencement address? Yes, those are all real as well.
The quote from the Christian ministry leader, while not from the Merchant Marine Academy, is a real quote from a service academy Christian ministry leader. It comes from the Campus Crusade for Christ director at the Air Force Academy, who said in a video filmed at that Academy that its cadets are “government-paid missionaries when they leave here.”
And, of course, Vice Admiral Nunan really did announce her departure the day after Duffy’s June 23 commencement address, or, more accurately, Sean Duffy’s DOT announced it for her in a press release issued on June 24. Whether Nunan’s departure was by choice or part of the Trump administration’s unceremonious ousting of female flag officers (admirals and generals) is not yet known.
Deputy Superintendent Rear Admiral David M. Wulf is also leaving, the DOT announced.
The DOT, under the direction of rabid Christian nationalist Sean Duffy, will now, according to the press release, “conduct an extensive search for new leadership of the Academy,” which will presumably be a search for the most gung-ho Christian admiral they can find to carry out the Christianizing of the Merchant Marine Academy and the saving of any unsaved midshipmen from eternal damnation.
All of us at MRFF wish Vice Admiral Nunan nothing but the greatest success and happiness in her future endeavors.
| | |
JONATHAN LARSEN
COVERS RALPH DROLLINGER’S
CAPITOL MINISTRIES
White House Bible Teacher Made
Pro-Israel Push the Day After Iran Strikes
By: Jonathan Larsen
Thursday, June 26, 2025
| | |
The day after Israel launched its first strikes against Iran, late on June 12, the man who leads the White House and congressional Bible-study groups posted his study guide for the next week’s study sessions: “The Biblical Case for Defending Israel.”
The study groups are run by Capitol Ministries, and led by its co-founder, Ralph Drollinger, a far-right preacher whose organization influences public officials in almost all the state capitals and a growing number of national capitals around the world.
| | |
More from Jonathan Larsen on Ralph Drollinger’s
Congressional and White House Bible Studies
| | |
Jonathan Larsen is the former executive producer of Up w/ Chris Hayes, senior producer at Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann, and is a veteran of
The Daily Show, ABCNews, CNN, The Young Turks, and more.
| | |
SUPPORT MRFF’s SOCIAL MEDIA
Please Help Increase
MRFF’s Social Media Engagement
| | |
PLEASE MAKE A
100% TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION
MRFF is a 501C3 Nonprofit
| | Please Share on Social Media | |
MRFF Information/Contact:
(505) 250-7727
| | | | |
