One might call it a faithy morning at the Republican National Convention. At 9:30 am (Central), the party's Jewish Advisory Board is meeting, and the Catholic Working Group meets at 11:00 am (Central). In addition to symbolizing religious inclusiveness, this schedule highlights the importance of Jewish and Catholic voters in the election. As I've blogged about numerous times, Catholic voters might be the most vigorously courted religious group in this election because of their enormity and their habit of picking the winner (in that respect, if Catholics were a state they'd be Missouri). Jewish voters, while fewer in number, have the potential to swing key states such as Pennsylvania and Florida.

Both groups are traditionally associated with particularly contentious issues such as abortion and Israel, but also with a long history of working for social justice. You can't talk about the common good from a theological perspective without drawing on Tikkun olam and Catholic social teaching. And in flashbacks to my education in civil rights history, I always recall Viola Liuzzo, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner among the many who died in the movement. Whether these traditions are appealed to at the RNC is an interesting question. Hopefully so.