There are some forms of religion that are bad, just as there’s bad cooking or bad art or bad sex, you have bad religion too.

Armstrong’s remark pushes back against treating “religion” as a single, uniform phenomenon—either wholly good or wholly harmful. By comparing it to everyday human practices (cooking, art, sex), she frames religion as a skillful, culturally shaped activity that can be done well or badly. “Bad religion” in this sense is not merely mistaken belief but a distorted practice: coercive, violent, anti-compassionate, or intellectually dishonest. The quote also implies a standard for evaluation: religion should be judged by its fruits—how it forms character and community—rather than by labels or abstractions. It fits Armstrong’s broader emphasis on compassion and ethical practice over dogmatism.