Quick Summary
- Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen will testify before the House Judiciary Committee in Washington on Wednesday.
- Räsänen will speak about speech restrictions in Europe and Finland’s prosecution of her Bible verse tweet.
- A conviction could lead to increased prosecutions for similar expressions across Europe, advocates warn.
Finnish member of parliament Päivi Räsänen, who is awaiting a Supreme Court ruling in a criminal case over a Bible verse tweet, is scheduled to testify before the U.S. Congress on Wednesday about expanding speech restrictions in Europe.
Räsänen, 66, will appear before the House Judiciary Committee in Washington as part of a hearing on foreign censorship beginning at the Rayburn House Office Building.
The hearing, titled “Europe’s Threat to Speech and Innovation: Part II,” will examine how speech laws in the European Union and individual countries are affecting innovation and democratic expression in the United States, with a focus on the Digital Services Act.
Other witnesses scheduled to speak include Lorcán Price, a legal expert with ADF International, who will warn lawmakers about the transnational reach of European speech restrictions and their potential influence on American platforms and legal norms.
Räsänen’s case stems from a 2019 tweet quoting Romans 1:24–27 and questioning the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland’s sponsorship of an LGBT pride event, which led to police complaints and a criminal investigation. She was eventually charged with three counts of agitation against a minority group, a criminal offense under Finnish hate speech provisions.
The Supreme Court of Finland heard arguments in the case in October 2025, after lower courts twice acquitted both Räsänen and Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola, who published a pamphlet she wrote in 2004 titled “Male and Female He Created Them.”
Räsänen served as Finland’s interior minister from 2011 to 2015. The charges against her were based on three instances of expression: her tweet, the pamphlet co-authored with Pohjola, and remarks during a radio interview.
She has refused to retract her statements, saying she acted out of her religious convictions and quoting Scripture cannot amount to a criminal act. “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,” she told reporters before her trial.
Her legal defense team argues that punishing Räsänen for citing the Bible violates both Finnish constitutional rights and international human rights law.
In a previous interview with The Christian Post, Räsänen recalled being disturbed by her church’s participation in the 2019 Helsinki LGBT Pride march. She said her tweet drew swift complaints from citizens, prompting a prolonged police investigation.
Räsänen and Pohjola underwent repeated interrogations over the tweet and pamphlet. Prosecutors used these materials, along with her radio comments, to pursue the case.
If convicted, both defendants face financial penalties and potential content censorship.
Räsänen said that during the process, many people contacted her to say they were inspired to explore faith, including some LGBT individuals. She also stated that the ordeal had given her more opportunities to speak publicly about Christian teachings, including in court, with the police, and through the media.
Räsänen has warned that a conviction could open the door to similar prosecutions across Europe. “If I would lose, it would mean … starting a time of persecution of Christians in Finland and also in Europe,” she said.
Paul Coleman of ADF International called hate speech laws a danger to open discourse.
“Criminalizing peaceful speech through so-called ‘hate speech’ laws not only silences important conversations — it endangers democracy itself,” he said last year after Räsänen’s case was heard by the Supreme Court of Finland.
