“Dissidents, in his view, were covenant-breakers. Their lack of trust in God or concern for the community of the saints put the whole people in jeopardy.” Moroni “saw dissension as a root cause of Nephite problems … .
“‘For it was his first care to put an end to such contentions and dissensions among the people for behold, this had been hitherto a cause of all their destruction’ [Alma 51:16]. … One cannot blame Moroni for his sensitivity to dissension. Without exception, every enemy specifically identified by Mormon in Alma 43–63 is a body of Nephite dissenters or a group led by a Nephite dissenter (eg 43:5–8; 46:3–7; 50:25–28; 51:16; 52:3; 61:8)” (Valletta, “Captain and the Covenant,” 244).