RELIGIOUS STRONGHOLDS
Toxicity is not a term that is often used in the context of religion. Since toxicity is a term that is loaded with negative imagery, we would expect religious people to accept that it applies to religious cults but not to their own religion which they consider to be pure, righteous and above criticism.

People who are unable to find fault with their religion show clear evidence that they are intoxicated with it. Irrepressible pride in the belief that their religion, whether Judaism, Christianity, or any other religion, is the one, pure religion that God blesses is a key factor indicating that religion is toxic. They are unshakably convinced that people who subscribe to their brand of religion are God’s elite, chosen people. They are locked into strongholds of thinking that God has vowed to destroy.

STUDY TIP: See Religion is a Stronghold of Wrong Thinking.

The Bible symbolically refers to this pride as the strong drink (i.e. wine) of religion that has intoxicated Old/First Covenant religionists (i.e. Israel)  from Bible story days to the present. This intoxication is what enables cults of all kinds to attract followers and incite them to do all manner of things that they would not do on their own initiative. In particular, it is the intoxicating wine of Judaism and Christianity, but it also applies to any religion.