It's Not About Religion
The 12 Steps are another way completely for you to gain freedom.
They 12 Steps do not look at the folly of sin at all (except in the very first step). The Steps don't sound very religious to many. And they essentially are not about religion. They are about our receptiveness to religion as a force of growth in our lives.
They are about cultivating integrity, self-honesty, maturity, and God-centeredness. The people who live them, all seem to say they got some of these things from working them, along with the ability to remain sober one day at a time.