The Supreme Court of Finland on Thursday heard the landmark case of Päivi Räsänen, a Finnish member of parliament who has been repeatedly dragged into court over a six-year-old Bible verse tweet that criticized the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland for promoting LGBT pride month.
Räsänen, who also served as Finland’s interior minister from 2011 to 2015, faced her third trial in the country along with Bishop Juhana Pohjola, despite being unanimously acquitted twice by the Helsinki Court of Appeal and the three-judge District Court of Helsinki, according to a statement from lawyers at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International.
“I stand here not only to defend my own right to speak freely, but to defend the freedom of every person to express deeply held beliefs without fear of punishment,” Räsänen told reporters before heading into court Thursday.
“My case will show whether quoting the Bible can become a crime in a free country. I trust that the Finnish Supreme Court will uphold the rule of law and the fundamental freedom to speak openly about faith. No one should be censored for sharing the timeless truths of Scripture.”
Räsänen first drew the attention of authorities in 2019, shortly after she tweeted a photo from the book of Romans asking how the Finnish Lutheran Church could agree with “shame and sin” being presented as “a matter of pride.”
During a recent interview with The Christian Post, Räsänen recounted how she struggled with her church participating in a Helsinki LGBT pride event, and how her tweet challenging the church’s position led to almost immediate pushback from citizens, who filed complaints that resulted in a police investigation.
A pamphlet she wrote with Pohjola in 2004, titled “Male and Female He Created Them: Homosexual relationships challenge the Christian concept of humanity,” also became part of the investigation.
After being subjected to 13 hours of interrogation over several months, Finland’s prosecutor general used Räsänen’s tweet, pamphlet and a radio interview to charge her with three counts of “agitation against a minority group,” which falls under the Finnish law regarding “war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Pohjola was charged for his role in publishing the pamphlet.
Räsänen told CP she refused calls from detractors to recant her beliefs and statements.
“I said that ‘I will not apologize,'” she said. “It’s not only my view; it is what the word of God says.”
She reiterated her concern that her case, should she lose, could open the door to further persecution against Christians in Europe.
“If I would lose, it would mean … starting a time of persecution of Christians in Finland and also in Europe,” she said. “Because they are waiting for the result as well in other European countries.”
Räsänen also expressed gratitude for her situation, noting it has offered her the opportunity to promote the Gospel, including to those who struggle with their sexuality.
“This whole process has opened up such chances, such possibilities to speak in public about God’s Word and also about the Gospel … that I would never have gotten without this,” she said. “So I should be grateful to the prosecutor general, because I have had the possibility to bear witness to Christ in front of the police, and in court, and also in the media.”
“And there are many people who have told me that they have found Christ through this process — also some LGBT people,” she added.
Paul Coleman of ADF International emphasized the danger of using “hate speech” laws in Europe to silence unpopular opinions.
“Criminalizing peaceful speech through so-called ‘hate speech’ laws not only silences important conversations — it endangers democracy itself,” he said.
The Supreme Court’s ruling is slated to be announced in the coming months. If convicted, Räsänen and Pohjola could face fines of tens of thousands of euros and censorship of the tweet and the pamphlet.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com
