KINGS POINT, New York (LifeSiteNews) — U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has announced that he is restoring a historic painting of Jesus Christ to its place of prominence at the Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York, after it had been taken down by Biden-era officials.
“We are moving Jesus out of the basement. To all the great midshipmen at the Merchant Marine Academy, you let me know how important this painting was to all of you,” Duffy, a Catholic, said in a video message.
We are moving Jesus out of the basement at the Merchant Marine Academy!
To all the midshipmen: this painting is going back where it belongs. pic.twitter.com/bJ9c0FUr4e
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) May 15, 2025
Duffy previously served as a Republican congressman from Wisconsin. His wife Rachel, with whom he has nine children, is a Fox News host. His decision to relocate the painting, officially titled “Christ on the Water,” elicited enthusiastic cheers and applause from service men and women when he told them in April he planned to do so.
“You want Jesus up from the basement, right? Great!” he exclaimed at the time. The moment was shared on X by Christian Post journalist Jon Brown.
Midshipmen at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy erupted in applause when @SecDuffy demanded a painting of Jesus saving merchant mariners be restored.
The Biden admin put a curtain over the painting before putting it in a flood-prone basement.
“Let’s bring Him up!” pic.twitter.com/qQvLKXKE5r
— Jon Brown (@JonBrownDC) April 9, 2025
According to the Academy’s website, “Christ on the Water” was painted in 1944 by Lt. Hunter Wood. Wood made it as “a tribute to all merchant seamen, especially to cadet-midshipmen who had been torpedoed during World War II.”
The painting is also known as “Jesus and Lifeboat” and stands 10 feet by 19 feet. It was initially going to be installed in a chapel located at the U.S. Merchant Marine Cadet Basic School, which was located in San Mateo, California. It was later placed in the chapel at the Academy’s Kings Point facility, which is located on New York’s Long Island.
Following a complaint from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation in 2023, the Biden administration removed it from the Elliot M. See Room and placed in the hallway below the Memorial Chapel. But Duffy has made the decision to restore the image despite the complaint and the seeming likelihood that he will face a lawsuit from the group.
In a press release issued on Friday, May 2, Duffy announced that his department has “terminated seven woke university grants totaling $54 million.”
“These grants were used to advance a radical DEI and green agenda that were both wasteful and ran counter to the transportation priorities of the American people,” the statement reads.
The grants funded leftist research on topics such as how “the transportation system creates and perpetuates inequities” and how “improvements to auto travel can benefit higher income, often white drivers.”
Duffy also announced on Tuesday, April 6, that he approved 180 woke-free infrastructure grants totaling more than $3.2 billion dollars. In February, he directed the department to “give preference to communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average” when approving grant money.
