[Loser]

Originally posted by LGM:
A defense penalty would be nice for play balance, but it does not make sense that a blessed ship is easier to hit.

No less sense than the attempt to gain the approval of some celestial being of questionable existence granting a ship the capacity to hit with every shot fired.

But seriously, the Relic is not just an object housed in the ship, at fifty kilotons it is a whole shrine, built into the ship. And certain things must sit in certain ways inside the shrine, they must not be disturbed. This makes the ship less maneuverable, and lowers defense.