Cappytan: I told my wife the other day that I probably could have gotten over my doubts if the Society didn't put so much emphasis on calling the organization "the Truth." Equating the organization with that word "truth" was something I couldn't get over when I found things that were obviously NOT true.
I think the word you really want is not "equate," but rather conflate:
- Conflation occurs when the identities of two or more individuals, concepts, or places, sharing some characteristics of one another, seem to be a single identity — the differences appear to become lost. In logic, it is the practice of treating two distinct concepts as if they were one, which produces errors or misunderstandings as a fusion of distinct subjects tends to obscure analysis of relationships which are emphasized by contrasts.