“The presaged contentions begin to occur in two places: (1) among church members (‘dissensions in the church’) and (2) in the body politic (‘also a contention among the people’). It is highly likely that the dividing line for the contentions was similar for both the religious and political dissidents. Mormon spells out the causal connection between increasing prosperity and the desire for social differentiation, even among church members. The pattern is, at this point, completely familiar—a continuous reminder of the larger culture’s influence on the Nephites” (Gardner, Second Witness, 5:77).