Prof. WILCOX: Parents whose kids are more religious are likely to see their kids do slightly better in school and also to see their kids to be much less likely to be involved with alcohol and drugs, to be delinquent or to experience psychological distress, things like depression, for instance.

MICHAEL: It's, like, burned into my consciousness -- stuff like, "Don't drink alcohol. Don't do drugs. Don't smoke." I don't want to, like, disappoint my parents or God or anybody by doing the wrong thing.

Ms. COSTELLO (To Kids): Who's got what? Naomi, Julianne -- dance. Michael, get your soccer stuff.

ROLLIN: Religion is not the only thing this family is busy doing. There is soccer for Michael, tap dancing for Naomi, and modern dance for Julianne. Judy has managed to make all of this work while holding down a full-time job, often done on her lap -- which is not to say she doesn't worry.

Ms. COSTELLO: I am most worried almost in the innocence of our children. I try to give them enough information so that they can make the right choices, but I get the sense that in a couple years my children will be surprised by the things they didn't know.

ROLLIN: Of course, part of every parent's job is to worry about the children. Our poll reveals that religious conservatives in particular -- more than half the number of traditional Catholics and almost as many evangelical Christians -- worry about their children seeing too much sex and violence on TV, video games, and in the movies. Many parents hope that religion will not only instill better values in their children but protect them from these negative influences in the culture.

And what about families with two religions? Meet Eric Nelson and Sarah Anders of Rockville, Maryland and their children, 14-year-old Faith and 10-year-old Marc.

ERIC NELSON: I grew up a Reform Jew. Both sets of grandparents came over from Belarus, very hard, under very hard circumstances. Neither of my parents really wanted to force us to go to services like they were forced to. But I still identify myself as a Jew, consider myself a Jew.

SARAH ANDERS: I was brought up a Southern Baptist in Little Rock, Arkansas. I came from a very religious family, and both of my parents came from families who were Southern Baptist and very active in their church.

ROLLIN: Ultimately, their parents accepted their marriage. Even so ...

Ms. ANDERS: I do have an aunt who is very Baptist and lives in Atlanta, and she prays for Eric every day that he will be saved, that he will come to know Jesus.

ROLLIN: It's Sunday morning. Sarah and her daughter Faith are at Christ Congregational Church. A few blocks away, Eric and Marc are singing Jewish prayers at IFFP, the Interfaith Families Project, a community of Jewish and Christian families where both religions are taught and celebrated.

Ms. ANDERS: Once I started taking Marc and Faith to church, he really sat up and said, "Wait a minute, this is not going to work. We have to do something different." And we were lucky we found out about this interfaith families group and went to a picnic at one of the member's houses. And I remember going out on their back porch and looking at this sea of people and saying, "Finally, a place where we belong."

Mr. NELSON: The reason why we ended up coming up with what we did, which is essentially a compromise, is because I really kind of felt that I was betraying my traditions and my roots and, you know, all my relatives who were killed for being Jews, by not pitching in and making sure that our children at least had an understanding and an exposure to my tradition and where I came from.

ROLLIN: Suppose your children decide to be Jews?

Ms. ANDERS: I knew you were going to ask that. I knew you would ask that. As long as they have a spiritual life, I don't care.

ROLLIN: I'm not convinced.

Ms. ANDERS: No? It's deeper and more complicated than that. It's the intimacy of the religion; it's what I know. It's the language of belief that I know. I love the rituals in Judaism, but it's not in my blood.

ROLLIN: What if your children become Christians?

Mr. NELSON: The biggest disappointment to me would be the loss of the heritage and the loss of the tradition and the loss of the identity.

ROLLIN: In the last 40 years there has been a marked increase in interfaith marriages. What effect does this have on the children?

Prof. WILCOX: It makes them less likely to be religious both as teenagers and as young adults; there are some risks in terms of delinquency and depression. On the positive end of the ledger, I would say that these kids tend to think for themselves more than other children, and they tend to have a better sense of how different traditions relate to one another or don't.

ROLLIN: Are they more tolerant?

Prof. WILCOX: They'd be more tolerant, typically. That's right, yes.

Ms. ANDERS: Hopefully they will wind up with more tolerance and an openness to people being whatever they are. But I think, realistically, I think the day-to-day challenges, just the logistics, going to Interfaith, going to church, doing Rosh Hashanah, doing seders, doing Hanukkah, doing Christmas -- it's sort of a mess. So it's very busy, and sometimes I wish, "Oh, why can't we just have Easter, and just only Easter!"

Mr. NELSON: Easter being one of the more difficult holidays.

Ms. ANDERS: Yes!

ROLLIN: Children of interfaith marriages are more likely to question religion.

FAITH: Sometimes I don't think God is real, because sometimes I'll say prayers and my prayers won't come answered. So I'll be, like, "Yeah, you are not real. Bye." But then, you know, after all you learn, all the miracles that happened, you kind of have to start to believe that someone is looking over you and is looking over our country.

MARC: I have scientific explanations for about everything they say God has done. The world started from bacteria. The parting of the Red Sea, tides coming in -- they just didn't know what the heck that was.

ROLLIN: So you question what you learn in religion; you just don't accept it?

FAITH: Well, you accept some of it but, I mean, you question a lot of it. I think you question more than you accept.

MARC: That's mostly it.

ROLLIN: Studies show that at age 16 and 17, children from one-faith families may start to question religion as well, as they grow more independent from their families. But when they marry and become parents themselves, they often return to religion, if only to pass it on to their children.

For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I'm Betty Rollin.