"Separation of Church and State: A Bedrock American Ideal" Cause & Effect No. 293: May 20, 2026
Cause & Effect is the biweekly newsletter of the Center for Inquiry community, covering a wide range of work that you help make possible. Become a member today!
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CFI Denounces ‘Rededicate 250’ Event, Defends Jefferson’s “Wall of Separation between Church and State”
CFI condemned last Sunday’s Christian nationalist celebration on the National Mall, calling “Rededicate 250” “an egregious misuse of public dollars” and another example of the Trump administration’s ongoing campaign to falsely rewrite U.S. history. -
CFI President and CEO Robyn Blumner said, “America’s founders purposely created a nation with a decidedly secular government after taking a lesson from centuries of bloody religious conflicts that wracked Europe. Why would we choose to go back to those dark ages when majority religions imposed their dogmas through law or the sword? It’s unAmerican.”
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Instead, Blumner called for a renewed commitment to defending Thomas Jefferson’s “wall of separation” between church and state. “CFI believes that the best way each of us can celebrate America is by standing up to defend the values that define it,” said Blumner
. “Keeping government out of religion—and religion out of secular government—is a bedrock American ideal.”
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Louisiana: Help CFI Defeat Two Theocratic Bills
CFI’s Office of Public Policy (OPP) is calling on Louisiana residents to help defeat two bills undermining church-state separation. -
SB 112 is a “release time” bill that would allow students to miss up to five hours from school per week to attend religious classes off school grounds with written permission from a parent or guardian. This release time bill is currently before the House Committee on Education.
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SB 307 would authorize the public display of the Ten Commandments on the Louisiana Capitol grounds. SB 307 is currently before the Committee on House and Governmental Affairs.
Both bills have already passed in the Louisiana Senate and are currently before the House of Representatives, and with Louisiana’s 2026 legislative session scheduled to end on June 1, the time to make your voice heard is now. |
Ann Druyan on Latest Point of Inquiry Episode
On the latest episode of CFI’s Point of Inquiry podcast, host Jim Underdown talked with special guest Ann Druyan. Over the course of several decades, Druyan has helped millions of readers and viewers better understand how our planet and universe operate. In this new interview, she reflects on her life’s work—including as part of the team that designed the messages on Voyager 1 and 2 and her contributions to all three iterations of the Cosmos series, her late husband Carl Sagan, and the future of science in our world.
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Cast Your Vote for the ScienceSaves Video Scholarship People’s Choice Award Time is running out to cast your vote for the 2026 ScienceSaves People’s Choice Award. Out of several hundred entries submitted for the 2026 Video Scholarship competition, six videos have been selected to compete for this year’s People’s Choice prize, and you can help crown the winner! -
The video with the most votes will receive a $1,000 scholarship, while the remaining five will each earn a $250 Honorable Mention award.
- Voting ends TOMORROW (Thursday, May 21) at 11:59 p.m. PT
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| Anticipating CSICon 2026: Everything You Need to Know about the Conference |
We’re just a few weeks away from the start of CSICon 2026. For the final installment of his “Anticipating CSICon 2026” video series, Rob Palmer and Susan Gerbic discuss “Everything You Need to Know about the Conference.” Don’t miss your chance to join us in Buffalo, New York, (June 11–14) for an all-star lineup of speakers, including Bill Nye, Mary Roach, Michael E. Mann, Peter Hotez, and many, many more.
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CSI Executive Director and Skeptical Inquirer Editor Stephen Hupp at TEDxStLouis on May 30 |
CSI Executive Director and Skeptical Inquirer Editor Stephen Hupp will be a featured speaker at the TEDxStLouis “Edge of Possible” Talks on Sunday, May 30, at the Missouri History Museum. Hupp will present “Boost Critical Thinking with Strange Games” and will explain the value of examining the world, particularly unusual phenomena, through a skeptical lens. The event is described as “an evening exploring the breakthroughs shaping what’s next—in health, science, design, technology, and critical thinking.”
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Skeptical Inquirer Deputy Editor Benjamin Radford was quoted in a CNN feature about the recent uptick in reported Bigfoot sightings in Ohio. READ NOW |
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| CSI Fellow Mick West spoke to Scientific American about the Pentagon’s recent release of government documents relating to reported UFO sightings. READ NOW
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Skeptical Inquirer columnist Stuart Vyse details how a recent New York Times opinion piece by Amy S. F. Lutz, a historian of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the mother of a young man with profound autism, resulted in her coming “Under Attack from the Armies of Autism Pseudoscience.” READ NOW
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A new, Spanish-language “¡Paparruchas!” by Luis Alfonso Gámez spotlights a report by the Spanish Ministry of Health that officially acknowledges that homeopathy does not work, following a thorough review of studies and documents from all over the world. READ NOW |
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Want to connect with fellow skeptics, freethinkers, and nonbelievers? Check out our Find a Group Map to find CFI-affiliated groups in your area! CFI Transnational CFI West (Los Angeles)
CFI Austin CFI Indiana CFI New York City CFI Portland CFI Western New York |
Thank you!
Everything we do at CFI is made possible by you and your support. Let’s keep working together for science, reason, and secular values! |
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