Many things about Pete Hegseth, U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, raise serious concerns — his alcoholism and adulterous womanizing among them. What concerns me perhaps even more is his exercise of bad religion. 

In speaking to the Senate committee which must approve his appointment, Hegseth attempted to wash away his past misdeeds by proclaiming, “I’m not a perfect person, but redemption is real,” he said, later adding, “I have failed in things in my life, and thankfully I’m redeemed by my Lord and Saviour Jesus.”

It’s not up to us to judge where Hegseth stands before God. Repentance and redemption are real. We all need forgiveness. Constantly. But redemption is not God’s magic trick. It requires human cooperation, that is, commitment and effort. Faith in Jesus is not an escape from facing our faults square in the eye but rather the entryway to life in the Spirit.

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Twelve-step programs work that way. They are based on forming a relationship with the real God, not some idol of our imagining. They begin with the acknowledgement that one’s life is out of control and that the path to sanity is mapped out by turning one’s life over to God. Then comes a searching moral inventory and the admission to another person of the exact nature of one’s wrongs.

Because so much religion is bad religion, people are right to be skeptical of the notion that a religious revival will solve the world’s problems. Religion can even be an impediment when bad actors believe stating “Jesus is my personal Lord and Saviour” makes grossly immoral action acceptable.

A Catholic version of bad religion exists too. It is the belief that frequent reception of the Sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation automatically makes one pleasing to God. 

Somewhere in the past, I read the mythical story of the husband who made his confession every two weeks, repeatedly telling the priest that he had paid scant attention to his children and shouted at his wife. After several months, his wife showed up in the confessional, complaining to the priest, “This sacrament is ruining our marriage. My husband comes here every two weeks to have his sins wiped away. Then he feels ‘clean’ and comes home to commit the same sins all over again.”

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Clearly, something more is needed. One is the resolve not to sin again. Another is taking steps to help ensure one doesn’t repeat those sins. The 12 steps are an accurate sketch of how one begins the way forward.

In Disciplines for Christian Living: Interfaith Perspectives, Fr. Thomas Ryan urges his readers to learn from the spiritual disciplines of other faiths. The Church has long possessed its own disciplines; however, it is failing to teach them to its people. That is as true now as when Ryan wrote his book more than 30 years ago.

Ryan describes the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting and service but also those of friendship, family life, play and “living with a Sabbath rhythm.” In summary he states, “The only discipline possible for any follower of Christ is one that is embraced in the realization of one’s own poverty and need to the point where one turns to God as the only hope.”

When the Second Vatican Council declared that there is a universal call to holiness, it meant every Christian has a very high calling. We are called not simply to be good persons but to seek union with God in Christ and through the Holy Spirit. That sounds like an impossible task, and without God’s assistance, it is. 

More than redeemed, we are holy. Forsaking the life of sin is a first step. The second is union with the triune God who is perfect love. Indeed, we cannot begin to escape sin unless we are already on the way to that union. 

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Vatican II taught many things, some of which involved reforms of our rituals and structures. However, at the core was its teaching that the fullness of our humanity is revealed in Jesus, the Word Made Flesh. Pope John Paul II spoke of that teaching repeatedly throughout his long pontificate. To be fully human we must become divine. The sacraments can help us in that journey.

Our pre-Vatican II catechism did not prepare us adequately for the call to holiness. But now it is clearly before us. We cannot be satisfied with bad religion. We must reach for the heights. If we don’t, we not only cheat ourselves but disgrace our faith.