Alex, I have no such constraints, so I can view the Apostles as being every bit as conniving as the rest of us (he says with a mischievous grin). My own feeling is that they were sincere in their beliefs, but that this didn't preclude them dealing with the practicalities of conveying their message to large numbers of people in a way that those people could easily relate to. In modern terms, they knew their target demographic, and put some thought into how to package their product so as to increase their market share. I also think they had a pragmatic, "don't sweat the small stuff" attitude when it came to things like circumcision -- the theological justification for circumcision was never very convincing (in my opinion), and they probably figured that they would do more good than harm by dispensing with this quaint little ritual. [I started to say that they probably felt they shouldn't sweat the small stuff, but that could be misinterpreted, given the topic we're discussing!]

Again, I should stress that I don't see anything immoral in any of this; I'm certainly not implying that it's the same as marketing cigarettes to kids. But a hammer is a hammer -- it's the same tool, whether you're using it to build a hospital or a concentration camp. One could say the same about the "tools" of effective mass communication. Does that make it go down any easier?