Alma 31
The “religion” of the Zoramites makes no sense to me. It is as if they invented a religion for some strange purpose without any regard for theology. This sounds like the result of someone (Zoram we assume) who wanted to build a society and brought people with him to settle a new land. There he dictated how things would be run. He implemented a religion out of a belief that religion serves some purpose in society, but he did not do it with any thought that there was anything real behind the religious observance. The result was that there was nothing behind there religion. They stood the cost of building synagogues (because that’s what you do) and they lived their life focused on things that were more tangible – their material possessions. It’s amazing that the poor among them did not recognize how little they were losing by not being admitted to the places of “worship.”