Mormon spends more time than usual on the description of the brewing problems in Nephite society. The social segregation led to even less desirable results. Those who were able to obtain the trappings of wealth, when others could not, began to make that distinction more than visible. They “began to be scornful, one towards another, and they began to persecute those that did not believe according to their own will and pleasure.”
This was not simply a church versus non-church division. Those who were in the church had also prospered, and had also begun to believe that they should show the trappings of their new prosperity. Thus, “there began to be great contentions among the people of the church.” The problem was no longer one of affiliation to the church, but to the greater social movement to hierarchy and inequality.
It is important for modern readers to note that “the wickedness of the church was a great stumbling-block to those who did not belong to the church.” When we can be seen living in such a way that we are no longer upholding the beliefs and covenants of the church, it becomes more difficult for those outside the church to believe that the church offers them anything better.