![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/4ee53e8a3eba869c32e3ba141227abd3-300x169.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Remember a few weeks back when we talked about the Merchant Marine Academy curtained off a painting of Jesus walking on water Short Takes<\/a> ? At the time they were leaving the painting in situ so cadets could see it behind the curtain; now it seems they figured out how to move it somewhere else. But in the process, the Superintendent has incurred the wrath of Senator Ted Cruz,and he ain’t happy with her:<\/p>\n Cruz sent the letter to (Ed. -Merchant Marine Academy superintendent Joanna) Nunan on Tuesday, writing he is “gravely concerned” about the “decision to cover and move the painting \u2018Christ on the Water\u2019” painted in the 1940s “which honors mariners lost at sea during World War II.”<\/p>\n “Despite the Academy\u2019s history and tradition of displaying the painting\u2014one that undoubtedly has provided comfort and solace to thousands of merchant mariners through the years\u2014you recently chose to first cover it with a curtain, and now remove it from the Elliot See Conference Room altogether, in response to a single complaint. That complaint came in the form of an email from Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, the president of an organization known as the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Cruz then blasted Nunan, saying he is “deeply concerned” by her “flawed understanding of the First Amendment to our Constitution” and that the time, “place and manner restrictions such as those Mr. Weinstein alleges are safeguards against government over-regulation of private speech.”<\/p>\n “But they are wholly irrelevant here because the painting is a government display, not a private one,” Cruz wrote. “The allegation that the painting somehow violates time, place and manner restrictions is an objective absurdity.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Pretty sure that if you want to argue Constitutional law, Ted Cruz may be one of the last opponents you would choose. Man knows his stuff, knows the law, and has done multiple cases in front of the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n “The email alleged the Academy\u2019s display of “Christ on the Water” violates \u2018the salient time, place, and manner requirements of American Constitutional law\u2019 and demanded that you remove it. This allegation\u2019s ignorance of U.S. Constitutional law is surpassed only by the swiftness with which you capitulated to Mr. Weinstein\u2019s demand, apparently within three hours of receiving the complaint.”<\/p>\n “Mr. Weinstein described the painting to you as \u2018a disastrous display of Jesus supremacy\u2019 and claimed that its placement caused him and others to be \u2018viciously oppressed.\u2019 Such obvious hostility towards faith has no place in America, let alone in one of our hallowed service academies. And frankly, to the degree you share such sentiment, it raises serious questions about your continued fitness to lead an institution dedicated to producing America\u2019s future Maritime Service members.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n