Mormon’s synopsis of Alma’s record begins with Antionum’s military significance. Mormon, a general, would naturally have recognized the danger of having a wavering tenuous member of the Nephite alliance occupying a strategic position so near the Lamanites. It seems curious to the modern reader that, while there is a military need for a strongly Nephite Antionum, the Nephite response was not military, but religious.
Religion and politics were never far apart in Zarahemla, even when they had different leaders. This political mission has a religious face because the laws of the land and the structure of society would have made it nearly impossible to do anything else. Korihor’s story illustrates that Zarahemla law did not condemn people for their beliefs. The Zoramites certainly had different beliefs, but those beliefs alone did not constitute a crime. A Zoramite defection held the potential for treason, which certainly would have been a crime, but it was the very development that Alma was attempting to avert. There was really no option for recovering Antionum by either military or legal force. At this time in Nephite history, the general population may have had a number of sympathizers with at least some of the Zoramite beliefs. It may have hindered raising an army from the local population that prevented military or legal action. The only way to return them to full community with Zarahemla was by reconverting them to the Nephite religion.