Hawthorne: religious man?

I am assuming Nathaniel Hawthorne was a religious man. Actually, I'm not too sure. When Hawthorne described how Hester was proud of her scarlet letter by polishing and embellishing her letter and such, it made me question if Hawthorne actually wanted to tell his female audience to be proud of their wrongdoings. I'm sure he didn't mean to say that, but he sure sympathized Hester and Dimmedale's relationship in his novel.