"It's hard to understand why government officials shy away from public policies that give religion a prominent role."

Every Sunday morning, the routine is essentially the same: Wake up, make pancakes, and get dressed for church, all the while hearing the kids complain, "Don't we get a day to sleep in ?"

Knowing what Duke University researchers have found, I'd be foolish to change our pattern. In the October International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, they report that those who attend weekly religious services have healthier immune systems than those who don't.

"It's the first study ever published. . . that has found an association between religious activity and immune functioning," says Dr. Harold Koenig, director of Duke's Center for the Study of Religion/Spirituality and Health.

The study measured blood levels of interleukin 6 (IL-6) and other substances that regulate immune and inflammatory responses. High levels of interleukin 6 are found in patients with AIDS, Alzheimer's disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, and depression, among other things.

In the study, those who attended weekly religious services were about half as likely as nonattenders to have elevated IL-6.

And immune systems aren't the only thing that function better when people regularly practice their faith.

To influence political discussion of the role of religion in public life, the Heritage Foundation recently compiled all the studies it could find on religion's link to health and social stability. The amount of research conducted over many years, and the overwhelmingly beneficial impact traced to religion, were amazing.

For example:

* Regular church attendance is the most critical factor in marital stability, regardless of denomination or doctrinal teaching on divorce. A 1993 survey of 3,300 men found that those who switch partners most are those with no religious convictions. Similarly, the rate of cohabitation before marriage is seven times higher among people who seldom or never attend religious services, a significant finding since couples who live together before marriage experience higher rates of divorce.

* Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have found cardiovascular disease significantly reduced by a lifetime of church attendance. Numerous other studies confirm that churchgoers live longer, with lower rates of cirrhosis, emphysema, and arteriosclerosis.

* Blood pressure is reduced an average of 5 mm of pressure by regular church attendance, 6 mm for people over 55. "Given that reducing blood pressure by 2 to 4 mm also reduces the mortality rate by 10 to 20 percent for any given population, a reduction of 5 mm is a very significant public-health achievement," says Patrick Fagan, who wrote the Heritage Foundation report.

* Religious involvement greatly decreases drug use, delinquency, and premarital sex, and increases self-control for all age groups. In a 1985 study of girls, 9 to 17, less than 10 percent of those who attended religious services weekly reported drug or alcohol use, compared to 38 percent overall.

Even economics may be affected by religious practice. Of youth who grew up in poverty in the 1970s and '80s, those who attended church weekly had significantly higher family incomes as adults-an average $12,600 higher than their nonchurchgoing peers.

The data based on the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, showed a positive impact from religion on children who grew up both in intact families and broken homes.

Public Policy Impact

With such data available, it's hard to understand why government officials shy away from public policies that give religion a prominent role.

Although the constitutional separation of church and state is usually blamed, former U.S. Education Secretary Bill Bennett, former Congressman Jack Kemp, and others say it is possible to use religion as a powerful force for good in the inner city without violating the First Amendment.

In Indianapolis, Mayor Stephen Goldsmith has contracted with churches to run summer programs for kids and manage city parks. The city puts signs in each of the parks with the name and phone number of the church and pastor. Such programs need to be expanded.

In his new book, The Twenty-First Century City, Goldsmith says public officials should use their bully pulpit to "celebrate and encourage religious commitment without favoring one tradition over another."

Bennett, Kemp, and Goldsmith are right. The evidence is simply too powerful to ignore.

By getting more people to the church, synagogue, or mosque of their choice, we just might bring down the country's unparalleled rates of divorce, crime, unwed pregnancy, and drug addiction, as well as strengthen our immunity.

Surely that's worth waking up for on Sunday- if the pancakes aren't reason enough.

This Article Appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, March/April, 1998