Bajoran culture is heavily based in their hierarchical religious structure which consists of Vediks and a Kai, or High Priestess. The controling forces within the religion are the prophets.
The Bajorans have come to look on station commander Benjamin Sisko as an emissary for the prophets who will eventually provide their salvation. from Cardassian tyranny.
Sisko not only has the responsibility of shepherding a culture, but the added responsibility of safeguarding the only known stable wormhole between the alpha quadrant and the gamma quadrant, making the station probably the single most strategically important outpost in all of Starfleet.