A nice South Dakota political parable for the Anglican Communion and those who just don't get it

South Dakota's lone U.S. Representative is Democrat Stephanie Herseth Sandlin.

By all accounts, she's really nice.

But her long-assumed safe seat seems more and more precarious in this year's midterm elections.

It's not because she's nice or not nice.

She might lose her seat, in part, because Democrats are mad at her for voting against Pres. Obama's health care plan. They don't care about her reasons, they are mad because she is a member of their party and she ditched them on something their party endorsed and fought for.

"Stephanie has crossed some line where she has opposed the majority of Democrats too many times," Davis said. "I voted for Stephanie, gave her money, wrote letters to the editor and went door to door for her. And I profoundly regret that."

The Episcopal Church (TEC) is Anglicanism's representative in the United States.

By all accounts, it's full of nice people, disproportionately gays and lesbians.

But TEC's long-assumed secure seat at the Anglican table seems more and more precarious after the Archbishop of Canterbury's most recent pastoral letter.

It's not because the gay and lesbian Episcopal Church people are nice or not nice.

TEC might lose its seat, in part, because most of the Anglican world is tired of TEC betraying a stated church position* onto which TEC signed. The other Anglicans don't care about TEC's reasons, they are fed up because TEC claims to represent them yet betrayed them after they discussed and then addressed a major issue in front of God and humanity.

"...when a province through its formal decision-making bodies or its House of Bishops as a body declines to accept requests or advice from the consultative organs of the Communion, it is very hard (as noted in my letter to the Communion last year after the General Convention of TEC) to see how members of that province can be placed in positions where they are required to represent the Communion as a whole."
The Archbishop of Canterbury's letter

* Lambeth Resolution 1:10, 1998:
...in view of the teaching of Scripture, upholds faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman in lifelong union, and believes that abstinence is right for those who are not called to marriage... while rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture... cannot advise the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions...