Well its nice to see that the Pesident of one country at least has some balls.  (Take note Obama)

The Catholics and Mormon Church has dramatically ramped up attacks in Argentina in advance of a vote on same-sex marriage in the Argentine Senate which would legalize it there.

In a  letter dated July 6 and read on Sunday to all Mormon congregations in Argentina, the church’s First Presidency said the doctrine is “absolutely clear: that marriage is between a man and a woman and is ordained of God.” The letter, signed by LDS President Thomas S. Monson and his counselors, Presidents Henry B. Eyring and Dieter F. Uchtdorf, encourages members to review the LDS document “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” a 1995 statement that proclaims traditional marriage as a sacred institution ordained by God and the family as the fundamental unit of society.

Now, Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner harshly criticized church leaders on Monday, saying that their discourse on the issue resembled “the times of the Crusades” and that they failed to acknowledge how socially liberal Argentina had become.

“They are portraying this as a religious moral issue and as a threat to ‘the natural order,’ when what we are really doing is looking at a reality that is already there,” the president said from Beijing. “It would be a terrible distortion of democracy if they denied minorities their rights.”

Gay rights advocates said Mrs. Kirchner and her husband, former President Néstor Kirchner, are responding to polls showing that nearly 70 percent of Argentines support giving gay people the same marital rights as heterosexuals.

Some political analysts see the issue as a political maneuver for the Kirchners to maintain their dynasty in Argentina. Mr. Kirchner, now a congressman, has been spearheading the gay marriage bill to regain the limelight before the 2011 elections, when he is widely expected to try to run for president again, said Carlos Germano, a political analyst in Buenos Aires.

Brava Christina.!  It seems that President Kirchner has more political courage in one of her finger nails than all the politicians in Washington combined.

The Argentine Senate is set to vote on the measure sometime today.