In a little, easily overlooked story The Times (paywall) report some of the explanations coming out of the Brazil camp for being knocked out of the World Cup. The Times begin their report this way:

Some Egyptians blamed their exit from the World Cup on a conspiracy, Americans on President Trump’s intervention over a suspended player. Now Brazilians have come up with a theory as to why they were knocked out — the growth of evangelicalism over Catholicism.

It goes on:

The argument has since taken a nationalist tone, with many suggesting that born-again Christianity is a cultural import from the United States — a country with a hardly inspiring football track record — and so that was the root of the problem. “Pray like a gringo, play like a gringo” was how one meme put it.

There is no doubt that many of the Brazilian team have come to find some sort of evangelical faith. I don’t make any claims about the credibility of any personal professions here, just note per The Times ‘The growth of Protestantism has been especially visible in Brazil’s national squad — where many of the star players actively advertise their faith. Of the current selection, at least 20 out of 26 players are evangelical Christians.’

The interesting thing is, the submitted reason for Brazil crashing out is a remarkably “evangelical” take. Not that it is properly evangelical, but it is very much in line with the pragmatic, prosperity, hyper-individualistic form of evangelicalism that has often been associated with a particular brand of American evangelicalism. A brand, it must be said, plenty of evangelicals in America would reject but has nevertheless become one of the country’s biggest religious exports. A gospel that John Piper famously called “crap”.

But to say ‘we crashed out of the world cup because we didn’t pray right’ is straight from the individualistic prosperity gospel. It is a belief system that says if I do X, Y and Z, if I perform the right duties and behaviours, God is duty bound to give me what I want. You might think Catholicism works on the same premise, and it therefore is in line with the Catholics saying it, but it doesn’t quite do this. Catholicism doesn’t say ‘do X, Y and Z and God is duty bound’. Rather, Catholicism says there are certain duties to perform and do and God may determine it is enough. It is the prosperity gospel that insists God must do for me whatever I want him to do because I did some duty or performed some rite for him. I think there is an interesting irony, then, in the Catholics complaining that Brazil crashed out of the World Cup because the evangelicals prayed wrongly because they are using a remarkably “evangelical” mode of reasoning to make their point.

Of course, if we understand the gospel as it really is, we would realise that God owes us nothing, asks nothing of us and yet gives his grace to those who believe abundantly, above and beyond all we could ask or think. He doesn’t do so in response to us, rather we believe in response to him. His grace is something we receive as a gift that we have no acquired or gained; it is given. Freely, unconditionally, entirely apart from anything we might do. It also means God does not simply give us whatever we want (what good Father ever does that for his children?) He gives us what is good and he works for our good. He is sovereign over all things and works them for the good of his people (all his people!) Which, however you cut it, means the mode of prayer offered at the world cup probably isn’t the specific reason anybody crashed out. Not least, what happens when another nation similarly prays to that same God that they might win? It isn’t ultimately how God works, how prayer functions nor what prayer is for.

What remains interesting, however, is how “evangelical” the Catholic argument is. It doesn’t stem from Catholicism, though it relied on a bastardised version of evangelicalism. It is the hyper-individualistic, me-centric theology that often prevails today. Just imagine how freeing it would be to realise that your performance isn’t really the reason why God does or doesn’t work. I appreciate footballers, whose entire life is a matter of judgement by performance, might find it difficult to grasp. But when you grasp it, it is so very freeing. But this is what Jesus says – to the Catholic trapped in religious performance or the prosperity gospel advocate making performance-based demands – ‘if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.’