First Lady Michelle Obama christened the US Coast Guard Cutter Stratton last Friday. There was a slight groan from the crowd when the first swing failed to break the bottle; the second was successful. Maritime tradition considers the failure of the bottle to break on christening “bad luck.” In one recent example, the Queen Victoria was reported to be a victim of the “Camilla curse” when a virus broke out on the cruise ship’s maiden voyage after the Duchess of Cornwall failed to break the bottle on the ship’s christening.
Maritime superstition notwithstanding, of course, it is laudable the First Lady would take the time to support the Coast Guard and the longstanding tradition of christening sea-going vessels.
Perhaps someday such celebrations will be overcome by events. After all, ship christening has a long and historied spiritual connection, and even the term christening is ripe with religious connotation. (See the US Navy’s official history on ship christening.) Those who want to strip any vestige of religious association from the US military will undoubtedly claim the blessing or christening of military equipment violates the Constitution and endangers American servicemembers fighting in our nation’s wars. Such a critique would be ridiculous, of course, but that hasn’t stopped similar ones made to date.
The US Navy has disputed reports that the USS Portland (LPD 27) will be commissioned in Portland, rather than where it is being built in Mississippi, because of Mississippi’s recently passed legislation protecting religious objections to homosexuality.
