Two weeks ago I was at a conference in California where I had the joy of sitting on a panel to discuss True Confessions, a book by my friend and First Things colleague Fran Maier. Though the book is a collection of interviews conducted with Catholics—bishops, clergy, and laypeople—there’s a lot Protestants can learn from it as well, particularly about the importance of church discipline.

As the only Protestant on the panel—and the only Protestant interviewed in the book—I was very much an outsider. The arcane politics of the Catholic Church are a mystery to me—as they are to many Catholics—and I have no experience of the rhythm and routines of everyday parish life. But there are many elements in the book that are instructive for those in the Protes…

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