Yes, it can.  If you’re overcoming low self esteem, it is worth looking into it more.
Let’s look at
- what is self esteem
- how can religion improve your self esteem?
- how can religion lower your self esteem?

What is self-esteem?
————————————–
This definition is from Nathaniel Branden and his book “The six pillars of self-esteem”.

- Self-esteem has two interrelated components.  One is a sense of basic confidence in the face of life’s challenges; self-efficacy.  The other is a sense of being worthy of happiness: self-respect. (page 27)
- Self-efficacy is not the conviction that we can never make an error.  It is the conviction that we are able to think, to judge, to know – and to correct our errors.  It is trust in our mental processes and abilities. (page 34)
Self-respect entails the expectation of friendship, love and happiness as natural, as a result to who we are and what we do. (page 37)
Here are the Six Pillars of Self Esteem from the book by Nathaniel Branden, used in overcoming low self-esteem.  The Six pillars are Personal Integrity, Living Consciously, Self-Responsibility, Self-Acceptance, Self-Assertiveness, Living Purposefully.

A brief expansion of these pillars for overcoming low self-esteem is:
Personal Integrity: Live according to your beliefs and values
Living Consciously: Be realistic, have an active mind rather than passive, be willing to see and correct mistakes.
Self-Responsibility: accept that “no one owes me fulfilment of my wishes” (page 107)
Self-Acceptance: When we fight a block it grows stronger.  When we acknowledge, experience and accept it, it begins to melt. (page 99)
Self-Assertiveness: My life does not belong to others and I am not here on earth to live up to someone else’s expectations. (page 121)
Living Purposefully: When we behave in ways that conflict with our judgement of what is appropriate, we lose face in out own eyes. (page 144)

How can religion improve your self esteem?
——————————————————————
Some bible quotes refer to God creating man in his own image.  Jesus talks about his sheep and the children of God.  These sound like good things; how bad can you be when you are made in the image of God and called the children of God.
A main tenant of Christianity (sorry, the main religion I know), is that you will go to heaven if you have faith and live a good life.  There is a lot of integrity, hope and living purposefully in this, which have a positive contribution to self-esteem.

Genesis 1:27
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. (Galatians 3:26)

How can religion lower your self esteem?
——————————————————————–
This quote is interpreted by some people that you should be humble, but also that you should treat yourself worse than other people.  There is a difference between putting others first and regarding others as more important.  Quite a few people misquote and argue negative narratives about you should not even aim for self-esteem, but should always be thinking of others and God.
Philippians 2:3 NKJV: Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.
In Nathaniel Branden’s book on self-esteem, he notes that the idea of original sin, us being sinful because of Adam & Eve’s sins, does not allow us to believe we are worthy of love.  Being sinful and needing to be saved does not square with being adequate and sufficient in life.

So can religion affect your self-esteem; yes.
Can you follow religion and have self-esteem?  Yes and no, depending on some interpretation.  In many cases, it will do more good than harm, but I believe we should ensure the people we trust are trustworthy and not manipulating our beliefs for their own ends.

Best of luck in overcoming low self esteem

I’m getting interested in people’s views on God and self-esteem now.  Here is another quote from Twitter:

• Trusting God and not myself will be mistaken for pessimism and low self esteem by the world.

I’m going to tweet the guy and ask about this.  I advocate for people to have high self-esteem.  If they put God or others first, I see no problem as long as it’s along the lines of  “I put others first AND I value myself“.

If someone is thinking “I don’t value myself and so God or other people should come first”, then they have low self-esteem.  I think a reasonable interpretation of the bible advocates humility (not arrogance) and loving others but not low self esteem.

Now, let’s send that tweet to see what the guy meant.

There is a debate on twitter about self-esteem and religion.  Is self-estem good or should it be avoided?

From Wikipdeia:

In the New Testament, Jesus repeated some of the commandments in Matthew 19:16–19 and condensed them into two general commands in another:

‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’

—Matthew 22:34-40

My interpretation of this is to show love, support and repect to others and to have similar love for yourself.  It discourages disrespect of others or selfishness.  It could allow humilty but does not encourage low self-esteem.

Some people say:

• Philippians 2:3 NKJV: Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.
• Jesus didn’t die for your self-esteem.
  
• Self-esteem is the result of disregarding the rights of God and contempt for the rights of men.-Holy Prophet (SAW)! [This came from an Islamic and I'm less familiar with their teachings]
• Getting people to have a higher self-esteem isn’t the solution. It’s the problem./ It’s nowhere found in the Bible./ Not true at all. That is the view of secular psychology. Jesus said that because it’s assumed people selfishly love themselves.
• The world maintains that you have to have and hold on to self-esteem. Jesus said you must esteem others first. Love thy neighbor…

This last one is just a misquote to score points, from a person with username that promotes himself highly.  Why would you trust a group that minimises the teachings of its most important human ever, sets itself us as an authority and encourages you to have low-self esteem?  A religion has a responsibility to use the power people bestow on it well.  It’s fine if they promote humility and even putting others first, but I simply don’t see any evidence that Jesus wanted you to have low self-esteem.  I’m not against responsible religions.

Can you see where this other tweet came from?

• It’s kind of Jesus to provide comfort for the guilt, self-doubt and lack of self-esteem his philosophy causes.