Wayne Rooney is Catholic.

I know, I know, it was Rooney for whom Spanish-speaking World Cup referees prepared by memorizing a list of English obscenities, so the English striker couldn’t lay in to them as he had other field officials during the run-ups.

So maybe Rooney isn’t a very good Catholic.

But he did show up to a training session with his crucifix and rosary some days ago, and those other World Cup officials—the kind who enforce every rule that has nothing to do with, say, teams having marvelous goals taken away without explanation—stepped in. Uh-uh, no religion allowed.

All this may leave World Cup officials in more than a fix a few weeks down the line here. That is, if the seeds play out and Brazil wins the Cup. Because, well, the Brazilians these days are praying, preaching athletes. They want you to know that they belong to Jesus. At least that’s what the shirt midfielder Kaka has been known to wear under his jersey says. How do we know this? Because the man that FIFA’s own site describes as “firmly established as one of the finest players in the world” does what most soccer stars do after a match—he takes off his jersey. But instead of his showing his chiseled musculature or his tatted skin, Kaka uses this moisture-wicking billboard to announce his beliefs. His religious beliefs.

So we’ll have to wait to see what FIFA has to say about all that, and Brazil’s postgame prayer habits, too, especially since the Cup will have already been won if all that comes to pass.

But we don’t have to wait to ask what in the world supposedly thinking people are thinking when they seek to nix religious expression.

All the time, golfers speak of the golf gods. Yes, even the professionals.

All the time, writers refer to athletes in terms that affix god-like status to their plays, their physiques, and their lifestyles. Certainly, we forgive an athlete’s foibles today in the same way that Greeks and Romans dismissed the foibles of their deities of old.

All the time, the sports business allows for “belief messages”—beer brings happiness, trucks make the man, shoes turn you into a better player, drugs improve you (in all kinds of ways, but mostly one). These aren’t just advertisements. These companies know that if they can make you believe, then you will buy.

I might dare to suggest that if Jesus or one of his representatives, say, paid to express what they want you to believe, then maybe that too would be permissible. But we all saw how that worked out for Tim Tebow and Focus on the Family. They got their spot, but they got all kinds of grief as well. Not so for another round of Danica Patrick and the Go Daddy girls. (Not sure what they believe, but pretty sure what they believe sells.)

So here we are at the bottom line, which appears to be this: In so many arenas today, gods are “all good.” God, not so much. Which in a way makes you wonder, doesn’t it, what all these politically correct rules makers really believe. Because if God doesn’t exist, wouldn’t He be no more worrisome than gods?