NY Times.  Quotes

More to the point, when pollsters looked at how often baby boomers said they went to church now and compared that with what they said when they were younger, they found a difference, said Frank Newport, Gallup’s editor in chief, who has a book coming outabout religion. “They were less religious, that group, 20 years ago than they are now,” he said.

What may explain why a boomer would become more religious? Part of it may be simply a function of maturation. “Marriage, having children, homeownership, and simply having roots in a community are all factors that nudge people toward religion,” David E. Campbell, the Notre Dame professor who wrote “American Grace” with Robert D. Putnam, said in an e-mail.

Then there is that other little matter: mortality, said Wade Clark Roof, a professor of religion and society at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who has written extensively about baby boomers.

“They have all been through it, or are in the middle of it,” he said. “Their parents are dying off. So the reality of mortality has hit them. When they were young, they thought they would live forever. But they know better now.”