Finnish Lawmaker Charged with Hate Speech For Quoting Scripture

Last year we noted that Päivi Räsänen, a Finnish lawmaker who was the chairwoman of the Christian Democrats from 2004 to 2015, and was the Minister of the Interior of Finland from 2011 and 2015, was under investigation for hate speech.

Last Thursday, Räsänen was formally charged with the crime.

The case arises out of brief comment Mrs. Räsänen, who is also a medical doctor, tweeted in June, 2019, that publicly questioned whether the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (the established church, which is very liberal) should join the Helsinki Pride Parade.  Mrs. Räsänen, whose husband is a pastor in the established church, tweeted:

“How can the Church’s doctrinal foundation, the Bible, be compatible with the lifting up of shame and sin as a subject of pride? #LGBT #HelsinkiPride2019 #Romans1:24-27,”.

She also shared a photograph of the Finnish translation of Romans 1:24-27 with her tweet.

"The Pride event’s ideological goal is to take pride in the type of relations that are described as being against God’s will,” wrote Räsänen. “Homosexual relationships, like those relationships outside of marriage, are described in the Bible as sinful and shameful.”

Mrs. Räsänen also wrote a 24-page booklet entitled “Male and female He created them – Homosexual relationships challenge the Christian concept of humanity.”

The Helsinki police started a criminal investigation of Mrs. Räsänen’s tweet in August, 2019. Mrs. Räsänen was then summoned to a Helsinki police station and interrogated for almost four hours:

“I was interrogated for almost four hours concerning this tweet. The police asked me if I would agree to remove the tweet within two weeks. I answered no. I was asked about the contents of the Letter to the Romans and what I meant by saying that practicing homosexuality is a sin and a shame. I answered that all of us are sinners, but the sinfulness of practicing homosexuality is nowadays denied.”

She has been charged based upon three incidents: 1) the social media posts in which she quoted Roman 1:24-27 questioning the participation of the established Lutheran church in the 2019 Pride parade, 2) for the content of a booklet about Bible and sexuality titled “Male and Female He Created them” published in 2004, and 3) her words in a radio talk show broadcast by the Finnish Public Broadcasting System, where she was invited to speak about the issue “What would Jesus think about homosexuals?”.

During a 2013 seminar, Mrs. Räsänen made the following statement, which now appears prophetic:

Truth usually comes with a price. One often has to pay for following truth, confessing truth and speaking it. . . . people are tempted to sell the truth, to acquire advantage by yielding to popular, false ideas and by distorting the truth. Yet the Bible exhorts, ‘Buy the truth, and do not sell it!” 

Martin Luther handled the issue of ‘consequences of faith’ aptly: “If you believe, you speak. If you speak, you must suffer. For faith, confession and cross belong together and are the part of a true Christian.”

In an initial reaction to being informed Thursday that she was being formally charged, Räsänen stated:

“The decision was surprising, even shocking. I don't think I'm guilty of threatening, slandering or insulting any group of people. All of these are a question of Bible teachings about marriage and gender. The accusations following my statements are essentially the question of whether you can display and express your conviction based on the traditional teachings of the Bible and Christian churches. I don't see in any way that I have degraded homosexuals whose dignity and human rights I have repeatedly said that I respect and defend. However, the teaching of the Bible is clear that marriage is between men and women and that practicing homosexuality is against God's will.”

* * *

“I will go to court with a peaceful and courageous mind, trusting that Finland is under the rule of law, where human rights, freedom of speech and freedom of religion based on constitutional and international agreements are respected. A conviction based on Christian faith is more than an opinion. The early Christians held fast to their conviction in the lions’ cave, so why not I in the court room? I did not back down from what I wrote and I do not apologize for the teachings of Apostle Paul. I'm willing to defend freedom of speech and religion to whatever extent I must defend them.”

Although Finland is nominally a Christian country, in reality it is post-Christian. Although two-thirds of the Finnish people belong to the established church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, a 2016 poll reported that only about one-third of Finns believe in the Christian God as taught by the church. Obviously, no more than a third of the country are Christians, and another third are members of the national church for cultural and social reasons only.

The persecution of Päivi Räsänen is what happens in post-Christian, secular countries where hedonism and sensuality reign supreme, and the Christian church is a dead husk. It will be happening with greater frequency. We are not far from that condition in the United States, where nominal Christianity has dropped to 65% and church membership to 47%.

UPDATE:

Below is an older interview, from about a year ago, done by CBN:

Below is a video produced by the Alliance Defending Freedom International, which is defending her: