The same faith. They weren’t a bunch of settlers who had migrated without a common goal— they were a pretty united group.
Had the church leadership council’s made the decisions to carry out the massacre that would be concerning. But I believe all of the public leadership decisions that were made were in favor of piece.
It really was what you said— a Wild West story where people were riled up and took part of the culture of vigilante justice. You could probably tell hundreds of stories that have a similar story arc but have smaller numbers with regards to deaths.