By declaring that the Nephites do not desire bloodshed or bondage, Moroni is making a formal invitation to surrender. He summarizes what he understands as the Lamanites’ motive for the attacking. The first reason is political (“for power”), and the second is economic (“the yoke of bondage”), which would have placed the Nephite cities as tributaries to the city-states represented by Zerahemnah.
Moroni then adds a third reason: the Lamanites are “angry… because of our religion.” Nephitism and Nehorism were two completely different ways of seeing the world. There could be no peaceful coexistence between the egalitarian Nephite ideal and the hierarchical Lamanite society. Each was inherently destructive to the other. Each would have seen influence from the other religion as dangerous to its way of life.