For some the culture is their religion. When religion fails someone they need something to connect them to something with meaning and to one another. As a person of faith/religion I get that. Everyone needs someone whether it be divine or secular. Jesus Christ Superstar a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber addressed some of that. Jesus as a cultural Icon. Sometimes we all just need that thing that gives us hope when all seems to be lost and finding it means being divergent and taking other roads to the eternal or the next life to come.