Toxic Religion.

In 313 CE, the emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, which granted Christianity—as well as most other religions—legal status. While this was an important development in the history of Christianity, it was not a total replacement of traditional Roman beliefs with Christianity.

Toxic religion tries to add rules, regulations, and requisites to the free gift that God offers us through relationship with his Son. Religion is Christ plus anything. In Galatia, some thought it was Christ plus circumcision. In our world, it might be Christ plus church membership. Or Christ plus tithing.

Studies among adults reveal fairly consistent relationships between levels of religiosity and depressive disorders that are significant and inverse. Religious factors become more potent as life stress increases.

I personally draw it between practices and teachings that promote the overall joy of all beings, and those that inflict harm or suffering, or involve God inflicting disproportionate suffering on anyone, such as any form of eternal damnation. I also draw it between open religion, viewing other paths as valid alternatives, and exclusivist religion, which claims that it alone is The True Path, and all others are false.

To me, good religion also promotes each individual practitioner’s direct and personal spiritual experience and development, granting them access to practices designed for this purpose. To claim that only certain people can have direct access to the Divine, and no one else can, is a sign of toxic religion. That doesn’t mean that every practice must be open and public; I’m totally fine with private, initiatory orders and priesthoods, and temples that are not open to everyone; but they must not seek to dominate all avenues of Divine access and experience, or oppose the practice of alternative such avenues among the common people.

I view as toxic any teaching that God’s judgment is seemingly arbitrary rather than calibrated to the experience of joy and suffering. I call it toxic to say that an action which does not cause suffering to anyone is a sin - and especially, to teach this to children. Because God said so doesn’t cut it. If you don’t understand why, then you have no business teaching it to children. That’s my view.

I believe that the difference lies in the goals/attitudes of those in the religion. If a religion promotes peace, love, forgiveness and joy then it is promoting a positive message. Positive messaging cannot be truly toxic. But if said religion is focused on violence, exclusion, and intolerance then it is a toxic religion with little to no redeeming value.

Good religion does not have negative effect on anyone. Not people inside the religion or outside of it.
Toxic religion goes around insulting and threatening people.

Religions have been around for millennia because fundamentally, they give people comfort, meaning and a sense of purpose in a capricious and uncertain world. No matter where you go on the planet, you see people performing similar rituals, making similar sacrifices and praying for similar outcomes. Their religious beliefs can help them get through near-impossible situations. That their beliefs are without much basis in reality is often neither here nor there. They give the sense of knowledge, belonging and comfort, and in the situations they are in, that’s all that matters.

But like poison, it’s a matter of dosage. Too much religion can be a bad thing. Religion can confer power and privilege to people who do not deserve it. Many charlatans have grown immensely wealthy on the back of religion. It can make people arrogant and uncaring in the face of suffering of fellow humans. It can blind people to injustices. Religion can be used as a blunt weapon to scare people, command blind obedience or accentuate tribal differences.

There are certain cults that have taken these pathologies to an extreme. Often formed around a single controlling and charismatic individual, these cults are truly toxic and damaging to their followers. Such groups are thankfully rare, but they do show how dangerous an unchecked religion can become.

Since religion is a human enterprise, it should be no surprise that supposedly non-religious organisations can also metastasize into something very damaging. Political, corporate and non-governmental ideologies can be just as toxic, given the right circumstances.

will qualify my answer. All religions are toxic because it requires you to be obedient and to follow their teachings, doctrines, dogmas, edicts based on blind faith. You are forbidden to question whatever they are pontificating and they will tell you what they teach you is the gospel truth. Which is nonsense
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If your religion tells you to sacrifice your life to prove your loyalty to your god, then your religion is toxic.

Our God is not a war freak nor a human blood spilling madman vampire. Christianity was not intended to be a religion but rather a relationship with God. Yet from the time Jesus walked on earth, people have tried to add rules to the relationship. In fact, the Apostle Paul battled a group known as the Judiazers who said a male must not just believe in Jesus, but he must also be circumcised to be right with God. Paul said, "Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ" (Gal. 1:6-7). The Greek word translated as pervert is mestastrepho and means to corrupt, to distort or to poison. Even with right motives, people take the purity of the gospel and pollute it with religion.

Any time you stumble into toxic religion, you'll likely see two poisonous problems. First, religion leads you to focus on the external rather than the internal. Religion requires a behavior-oriented path toward pleasing God. Religious people, often well-intentioned, focus on an outward expression rather than an inward transformation. Religion is our effort to close the gap between sinful humans and a holy God. Sadly, it reduces the beauty of the Gospel to a checklist of do's and don'ts. Rules try to regulate religion.

Not only does religion focus on the externals rather than the internals, but this external emphasis produces an internal pride. Rule-following religious people believe their behavior and beliefs are right and everyone else is wrong. It's like a piece of food that spoils--not only is it nasty and ruined, but it omits a noxious smell as well.

No wonder then that many non-Christians can't stand Christians. For starters, our spiritual pride often makes it impossible for us to get along with each other. Why should we be any better with anyone else? Some religious Christians are so convinced that their way of doing church is the only way, they discount and denounce every other style or philosophy. In doing so, they unknowingly become sour, self-righteous people. Why in the world would someone without Christ want to join a joyless, cynical, hypercritical and judgmental group of religious people?

Thankfully, Jesus didn't come to make us religious. He brought us the good news of his eternal life, a relationship with the living God. Religion is about me. Relationship is about Jesus. Religion is about what I do. Relationship is about what Jesus has done. Religion says, "If I obey God, He will love me." Relationship says, "Because God loves me, I can obey." Religion believes we have to do good things to get God's approval. Relationship says we get to do good things because God already approves us through Christ!

There's nothing more we need to do. Nothing. Thankfully, Jesus didn't come to make us religious. He brought us the good news of his eternal life, a relationship with the living God.