U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy urged graduating midshipmen at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York, earlier this week to remain faithful to God as they embark on their careers.
Delivering the 89th commencement address in the sweltering heat at the federal service academy, Duffy also promised to attend to the deteriorating conditions of the school's campus. He also echoed past remarks expressing concern about a historic Jesus painting that has repeatedly made headlines since being placed in a flood-prone basement in 2023.
Duffy began his remarks by commending the USMMA Class of 2025 for their perseverance, noting that the COVID-19 pandemic, which upended their early academic career, presented them with unique challenges that trained them in invaluable ways.
"There's a lot of lessons you all have learned over the last four years; one of them — probably the most important — is perseverance," he said.
"You're the class of COVID shutdowns of Sea Year," he said, referencing the crucial year that midshipmen obtain practical training on a sea-going vessel. "You're the class of no hot water for months. You're the class of not enough food. You're the class of paper plates and plastic forks. You are the class of dorms with mold and a dilapidated, falling-apart library."
"Congratulations, you have perseverance," Duffy told the midshipmen. "Several months ago, I was able to see for myself old tar dripping from the ceilings. I saw dorms rotting with mold. I saw rusty showers with no hot water."
"Worst of all, I saw Jesus stuffed in the basement," he added.
During his first visit to the USMMA earlier this year, Duffy went viral for his speech at the school's annual Battle Standard Dinner on April 3, during which midshipmen cheered his call for the restoration of "Christ on the Water," a historic painting that depicts Jesus ministering to desperate sailors lost at sea.
The painting adorned the USMMA's Wiley Hall until it was moved to a flood-prone basement following a complaint letter from Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.
A spokesperson for Duffy's office could not provide The Christian Post on Monday with a timetable for when the Jesus painting will be brought up from the basement but said, "The process has begun, and we hope to know more soon!"
A petition circulated earlier this year by Christian midshipmen in the Kings Point Christian Fellowship Club called for the painting to be moved to the school's Ackerman Auditorium. They suggested the painting had become symbolic of the suffering they endured to stand up for their beliefs during their time at USMMA.
They noted that persecution came from their own government and, in some cases, their own families.
"We identify with those sailors," the petition reads in part. "Our generation has been trampled underfoot by a country that has left us stranded out to sea with no intention of saving us. Our government, schools, and in some cases even our families have told us that we are not worth the effort."
"Specifically, during the COVID pandemic we were told that our lives were worth so little that they could be put on hold for years. Our bodies were not our own but we belonged to the federal government and USMMA Admissions, who could decide what we must put in our bodies," it continued.
"Through those difficult years and up to this very moment only one thing has proven to us time and time again, 'whoever comes to me I will never cast out.' That one thing is Jesus Christ, God of the Universe and Lord of our lives."
Citing a prominent LGBT display and optional rainbow logos on their uniforms, midshipmen who spoke to Fox News in 2023 suggested the Jesus painting controversy and the treatment of unvaccinated midshipmen were emblematic of a wider infiltration of left-wing political ideology seeping into the academy under the leadership of Duffy's predecessor, Pete Buttigieg.
Amid their many discouragements, Duffy said he has been moved by midshipmen "whose spirits could not be broken."
"I saw a group that, despite being disrespected and uncared for, was more passionate than ever about serving their country," he said.
At the conclusion of his commencement address, he offered the midshipmen nine points of life advice, the last of which was a dependence on God, which he suggested those at sea know better than most.
"There are two kinds of people: those who believe in God and those who think they're God," he said. "There's something beautiful, humbling and properly ordered about a man and woman who understand that there is 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."
"Stay faithful and never underestimate the power of prayer," he added.
