You ought to check with Benjamin Rush, if you want to talk about equivalence.
"Such is my veneration for every religion that reveals the attributes of the Deity, or a future state of rewards and punishments, that I had rather see the opinions of Confucius or Mohammed inculcated upon our youth than see them grow up wholly devoid of a system of religious principles. But the religion I mean to recommend in this place is the religion of JESUS CHRIST." 1786
Dr. Benjamin Rush, Signer of the Declaration, and delegate at the Constitutional Convention.
Advocating that a government have the power to say which religions are allowed and which are not is very dangerous and un-American political territory.
Alles klar, Herr Kommissar?
"You ought to check with Benjamin Rush, if you want to talk about equivalence."
Dr. Benjamin Rush has a very good point in that most religions have a part of Revelation, and, mutatis mutandis, it is better to have a part of Revelation than none at all.
However, it is extremely unlikely that Dr. Rush would have extended his tolerance to the religion of the Aztecs, centered as it was on human sacrifice, to the religion of Carthage, centered as it was on burning babies alive, to the Hindu practice of suttee, or even to the early Mormons, who practiced polygyny.
I would also assert that he'd have chosen a different example for this oft quoted passage if he'd known as much about Muhammedism as we know now.
"Advocating that a government have the power to say which religions are allowed and which are not is very dangerous and un-American political territory."
Not nearly as dangerous and un-American as abdicating our moral duty to sort the wheat from the chaff, the legitimate religions from the murderous cults.
"Alles klar, Herr Kommissar?"
How...piquant...it is, that the avatars of "tolerance" are forever unable to discuss an issue with civility.