Hugh Nibley
"Nehor's teaching caught on, and years later we find one of his followers, a judge, using peculiarly brutal and cruel methods against those guilty of preaching the old faith (Alma 14:15-18). It is significant that the most violent and inhuman mass persecutions in history--those of the Church in the fourth and fifth centuries, the Mutazilites in Islam, and the Inquisition--were initiated and carried out by idealists and intellectuals. Churches of Nehor's persuasion dotted the land as evidence of the popularity of his teaching, 'that God will save all men,' as well as his common-sense rejection of 'foolish traditions,' and the belief in such things as angels or the possibility of prophecy (Alma 21:6-8). It was simply not scientific to believe such stuff! To remonstrate with these open-minded believers was to incur both their wrath and their mockery (Alma 21:10). Now let us recall that it was the 'priestcrafts' of the Jews at Jerusalem that made things hard for Lehi in the beginning; when he tried to tell his fellow citizens in simple straightforward terms that he had seen a vision they 'did mock him,' and planned to put him to death (1 Nephi 1:19-20)." (An Approach to the Book of Mormon, p. 366)