I think the "more time in studies" theory is a red herring. If that were true, no college town pool hall, bowling alley or bar would be able to stay in business.

I think the family influence is the stronger reason. Before college, they HAD to go where mom and dad went. Church was something you generally were MADE to do (unless you were a church geek like me, in which case you go right to the campus ministry of your denomination and jump in.) so when you are away from home for the first time and trying on new identities, skipping church is a good place to start.

Also, Sundays are for recovering from hangovers, sleeping in and trying to cram in all your homework that you didnt' get done all weekend.

If campus ministries could host beer pong tournaments, they'd get more interest ...
;-)

Having worked in campus ministry, I can give an answer as to why there are so many spiritual-but-not-religious liberal folks at colleges and universities: the mainline denominations have all but abandoned ministering to young Christians, by cutting funding for campus ministry, ignoring the responsibility of college-town parishes to minister to kids, and generally making young people an extremely low priority.

Some denoms are better or worse about this, but in the state where I ran a ministry (at a public university), the situation was quite dismal. At the flagship state university, there were only two progressive mainline ministries, one a parish church and one a more traditional campus ministry. The progressive churches in town did very little to support those ministries or develop ministries of their own.

In my own university town, we were the only progressive mainline campus ministry, and we were woefully underfunded. Our only allies were *one* of the many progressive congregations in town -- the others ignored youth ministry entirely -- and the Newman Center.

At my own alma mater, I tried to get the mainline churches in the area to band together and send one of the clergy to campus every seven or eight weeks to minister to the progressive students on campus in rotation. The idea died in committee in every single congregation.

I get very tired of hearing about how young people don't want to go to church, or church is not relevant to them, or that they don't share progressive mainline values. At every campus around the country, there are kids desperate to be ministered to -- whether they're actively pursuing someone to minister to them or not, they're ripe and hungry for spiritual development. If they are becoming "spiritual-but-not-religious", that is entirely the fault of the denominations, for ignoring that need and not developing and funding ministries to them.

Fr Chris Tessone

Another interesting point is that young people in general (especially the more liberal minded) are more and more attracted to traditional liturgies, instead of the typical "dumbed down clappy service" that people often associate with youth.

I think this is an important trend the Church has to pay attention to.

Luiz --

Very true -- amen!

The fact is, young people want a religion that has depth. There ought to be a point to continuing on in discipleship. I understand the reason people want to do "seeker-friendly" stuff all the time, but the fact is, what draws people to come for a few months is not the same as what draws people to commit their life to something.

It's that deep, richly horizontal *and* vertical, traditional faith that I and many of my friends found attractive in college (I graduated in 2004). I didn't find many people offering it, though, then or now. Some do, but they rarely get much support.