Lies and Deception

Yesterday evening I received an email from a friend of mine in Ohio and I found it a bit disturbing to say the least. We have been talking about what it is to be Jewish and the steps one has to take to either reclaim their Jewish heritage or to convert. He told his Rabbi about my family and I and we have been invited to come and visit them which we will probably do in the near future. What disturbed me greatly though was what his Rabbi told him. He told him about some people who had come to them in the recent past that claimed that they wanted to convert to Judaism when their only real purpose was to learn how one becomes a Jew so that they could go and try to convert Jews to Christianity! I have a real distinct problem with that.
You have to have some really large ( place your own word here ) to go into a Jewish community, ingratiate yourself to the people, learn from them and then stab them in the back! That has to be somewhere close to about one of the lowest things I have ever heard.
Years ago, we belonged to a Christian denomination that has a "Daniel and Revelation" seminar where they would make the claim that they knew, based on their prophetess, what the end time events were going to be. They would send out fancy colorful fliers and give an address to come to but would never mention the name of the church or the denomination. They would go so far as to cover up the church sign and remove anything in the church that would give away who they were. The end result is that the unsuspecting seeker of truth would be drawn into what amounted to an indoctrination into the denomination.
Now lets examine both situations very carefully because if you look they have some very common threads.
The biggest of those threads is deception. Yes deception! If your message is so shaky that the only way to reach people is to deceive them and lie to them then I would submit to you that there is a distinct problem with your religion and message.
Tell me, those of you Christians , who believe in the "great commission", where were you ever told that it was OK to lie and deceive to get your message out? Is there some commandment that I some how have missed that allows for deception when speaking to people about G-D and your beliefs? Perhaps you need to go back and read a bit of history, the greatest deceivers were those in leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, they have never cared to much as to how they got their message across or what they had to incorporate into it to make it palatable to the people. Is this how Christianity works? Is your message based in nothing but lies? I admit that I don't believe in Christianity and Jesus, but even I have a hard time understanding how a person can justify deception like that even if it is well intentioned. Does the ends justify the means? Shall we go further then that and re authorize torture as a way to make people believe the way that you do?
One of the things that I have appreciated about the Jewish people that I have gotten to know and converse with, is that none of them have tried to lie to me to tell me that I must become a Jew in order to be saved and to serve G-D. In fact most of the people that I have talked to have gone out of their way to point out just how difficult it can be and also to point out that their isn't a command saying that I must convert. Wow, imagine that, honesty. I have learned much from these people with no pressure at all and despite the difficulties it makes me want to convert and quite frankly ,my family and I probably will.
To my Christian friends I say this; If you want to know why people are leaving in droves, it is because on some deeper level they know that they are being deceived and if you want to know why the Jews resist you it is simply because they know beyond a doubt that you are trying to deceive them.
If your faith is based on nothing more then lies and deception you have a serious problem and need to really seek out G-D and learn the truth.

Zech. 8:23 Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying let us go with you for we have heard that G-d is with you.

Words to consider,
Shalom,
Ignacio