On the Square Today

James R. Rogers on  defending religious “practices” using the language of rights :

Except under a narrowly defined religious exception, the requirement under the Affordable Health Care Act that employers provide insurance that pays for contraception and other reproductive services, even when employers are religious institutions with long-standing convictions opposed to the use of contraception, has justifiably been sharply criticized. Basically, unless an employer employs mainly church members who teach the faith to other members of that faith, then the religious exemption does not apply.

Also today, Allison Peller on the love of beauty and the birth of the artist :

Beauty in art has been the source of countless philosophies, treatises, and debates for thousands of years. It is a discussion I typically try to avoid, as the definition of Beauty (with a capital ‘B’) is based almost entirely on individual taste and each rule seems to have twenty exceptions leading down a never-ending rabbit hole from which there is no return. But recently, I was reading Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson and was unexpectedly struck by his chapter entitled “Beauty.”

And in our third feature, Peter Blair explains why Christians should put culture before politics :

In his recent book  Bad Religion ,  New York Times  columnist Ross Douthat argues that, while political engagement is an essential part of the Christian presence in the world, American Christians have perhaps put too much emphasis on political engagement and party politics to the exclusion of other aspects of Christian witness. He recommends that Christians recover a more holistic presence in the world, and he places a dedication to fostering sanctity and beauty in the center of this recovery.