U.S. Congressman Huffman Grills DOT Sec'y Duffy Over MRFF’s Exposed Giant Jesus Painting and Thanks MRFF

Thursday Evening, July 17, 2025

U.S. CONGRESSMAN JARED HUFFMAN GRILLS

DOT SEC'Y DUFFY OVER MRFF’S EXPOSED

GIANT JESUS PAINTING AT USMMA

AND THANKS MRFF FOR ITS COURAGE

“We Have a First Amendment for a Reason.”

— U.S. Congressman Huffman to DOT Sec'y Duffy

"...thank you for your courage and fortitude."

— U.S. Congressman Huffman to MRFF

In 2023, MRFF, acting on a complaint from a group of

17 alumni, midshipmen, faculty, and staff at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, a number that quickly doubled, succeeded in getting an enormous painting of Jesus moved from the

Elliot M. See conference room in the Academy’s

administrative building to the chapel.

But now, as we’ve been reporting for the last few months, former reality TV star and Christian supremacist transportation secretary Sean Duffy is on a crusade to not only move the painting back to its completely unconstitutional former location, but to install a

plaque for it that ends with this preposterous sentence:

“This painting has taken on historical significance and become a part of the Academy’s community, imparting varying meanings for different members of the Academy’s community.”

MRFF’s Mikey Weinstein has a message for Duffy about all those “varying meanings” he thinks a gigantic painting of Jesus

could have, telling the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA):

“We especially look forward to taking your deposition and directly examining you on the witness stand during the trial where you can expand and extrapolate on the ‘varying meanings’ of a gigantic painting, showing Jesus Christ to the exclusion of any other God

or non-God deity figure in support of sailors in distress at sea.”

Congressman Jared Huffman grilling Sean Duffy during House hearing

U.S. Congressman Jared Huffman (D-CA) grills Sean Duffy about giant Jesus painting

Click to watch (2:59) video of Rep. Huffman grilling Duffy on X

E-mail from U.S. Congressman Jared Huffman (D-CA)

to MRFF’s Mikey Weinstein

Thursday, July 17, 2025

Dear Mikey, please share these sentiments from me to the current and former members of the military who you work with:

“Standing up to pervasive violations of church-state separation and violations of religious freedom takes courage, especially in the military setting. To the current and former cadets, midshipmen, soldiers, sailors, airman, Marines and guardians who work with MRFF to protect true religious freedom for all of us, thank you for your courage and fortitude.”

Jared Huffman

United States Congressman (D-CA)

JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENGY (JTA)

COVERS MRFF

Transportation secretary grilled over decision to rehang Jesus painting at Merchant Marine Academy

By: Ron Kampeas

Thursday, July 17, 2025

JTA covers Rep. Jared Huffman’s (D-CA) grilling of MAGA Christian supremacist transportation secretary Sean Duffy over his plan to return the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy’s gigantic Jesus painting to its former completely unconstitutional location.

The article notes that it was MRFF who got the painting moved to the Academy’s chapel in 2023 and quotes Mikey Weinstein on MRFF’s vow to sue if the painting is returned:

“‘MRFF is already hard at work in an effort to file a federal lawsuit, forcing the removal of that painting once again to a location at the Academy, which is constitutionally permissible as to time, place and manner,’ the foundation’s president, Mikey Weinstein, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Addressing Duffy, Weinstein said, ‘We look SO forward to seeing you in court.’”

Click to read on JTA

Mikey Weinstein's Full Statement Sent to the

Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)

Directed at Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

I want tRump's Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, to listen very carefully now.

As the primary civil rights organization singularly responsible for representing a good number of U.S. Merchant Marine Academy midshipmen, staff and faculty of many faith traditions and no faith traditions to remove the viciously sectarian "Christ on the Water" painting from the Elliott M. See room at the United Staes Merchant Marine Academy several years ago, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) is most pleased to provide our thoughts on Duffy's decision to once again display that painting in the wholly unconstitutional manner in which it had been presented at the Academy for so many years prior to MRFF’s actions to force its removal to a constitutionally acceptable location those same several years ago.

*FUN FACT: The Merchant Marine Academy is including a new plaque to be displayed with the return of this Jesus painting, which was required under the federal contract to restore the painting. The words are simply a totally transparent and feeble attempt to put lipstick on a pig. Indeed, it includes this ridiculous phrase towards the end of the plaque statement attempting to assert that the obvious non-secular visual of the giant Jesus painting should equally apply to all of its observers of any faith or no faith tradition; "imparting varying meanings for different members of the Academy's community.”

On behalf of the MRFF, Secretary Duffy, let me make it clear that your despicable, Christian nationalist, wet dream to restore that sectarian Jesus painting (vomiting blatantly illegal, Christian extremist, exclusivity, triumphalism, supremacy and domination) to its incontrovertibly unconstitutional prior position of wretchedly putrid display imparts the VERY same number of "varying meanings" that flipping the bird from one individual to another has for the receiver of the middle finger flip-off.

(Please visualize MRFF transmitting that very same middle finger hand signal to you at this very moment. Please advise as to how many "varying meanings" you are getting from us here, Duffy?)

Duffy, you are a cowardly, hateful, craven, fundamentalist Christian extremist doing your level best to leave red-as hell, pale hickeys on the asses of tRump and his spineless MAGA servants.

MRFF is already hard at work in an effort to file a federal lawsuit, forcing the removal of that painting once again to a location at the Academy, which is constitutionally permissible as to time, place and manner. We look SO forward to seeing you in court.

And we especially look forward to taking your deposition and directly examining you on the witness stand during the trial where you can expand and extrapolate on the "varying meanings" of a gigantic painting, showing Jesus Christ to the exclusion of any other God or non-God deity figure in support of sailors in distress at sea.

Sean Duffy’s official DOT press release and video announcing that he’s moving giant Jesus back to

its constitutionally repugnant location in the

Academy’s Elliot M. See conference room

Thursday, May 15, 2025

U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary

Sean P. Duffy Announces USMMA’s Christ on

the Water Painting is Moving out of the Basement

Thursday, May 15, 2025

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean P. Duffy announced that the historic Christ on the Water painting will be moved out of the basement and returned to its original location in the Elliot M. See Room at the United States Merchant Marine Academy’s (USMMA) Wiley Hall. The painting, which depicts Jesus Christ guiding sailors through stormy seas, is a significant symbol of the Academy’s religious and maritime heritage. The painting, which had hung in the Elliot M. See Room for nearly 80 years, was moved to the flood-prone basement of the chapel under the Biden Administration.