After a three-year ordeal, Dr Päivi Räsänen and the Rev Dr Juhana Pohjola were finally cleared of all the charges brought against them of hate crimes. Unfortunately, that was not the end of the story.
A lengthy battle
Following an investigation which began in 2019, Finland’s prosecutor general in March 2021 finally charged Dr Päivi Räsänen, a Member of Parliament and Minister of the Interior from 2011 to 2015, with three counts of ‘ethnic agitation’ for peacefully expressing her Christian views on marriage and sexuality. Each charge carried a possible two-year sentence.
The first charge arose from Dr Räsänen’s 2004 authorship of a pamphlet entitled ‘Male and Female He Created Them: Homosexual Relationships Challenge the Christian Concept of Humanity’, published by the Luther Foundation. In the booklet, Dr Räsänen argued that homosexual activity should be recognised by the church as sinful, based on the teachings of the Bible. She further argued that a failure to recognise sin as sin undermines the very need for a Saviour. Also charged with ‘ethnic agitation’ was the publisher of the pamphlet, the Rev Dr Juhana Pohjola, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland.
As well as being prosecuted for writing the pamphlet, Dr Räsänen was charged with two other ‘hate crimes’: tweeting a Bible verse in 2019, and supposedly derogatory comments she made on a 2018 TV programme entitled ‘What would Jesus Think about Homosexuals?’
Dr Räsänen argued that homosexual activity should be recognised by the church as sinful, based on the teachings of the Bible
In 2019, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Finland sponsored an LGBT pride event. In response Dr Räsänen shared a picture of her Bible open at Romans 1:24-27: ‘Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another’. Below the picture she asked: ‘How can the church’s doctrinal foundation, the Bible, be compatible with the lifting up of shame and sin as a subject of pride?’
Not guilty
These prosecutions cannot be understood as an everyday application of ‘hate speech’ law. The comments were made in a reasonable tone, defamed no one and did not incite hatred; they merely stood out against the prevailing zeitgeist, something faithful Christians have done for two thousand years. Public order and civil equality are qualities which any state must uphold. They should not, however, be used to support the suppression of the right to believe and express one’s beliefs in a calm and reasonable manner.
The trial officially began in Helsinki District Court on 24th January 2022, and on 30th March, the court cleared Ms Räsänen and the bishop of all charges, saying in its decision, ‘there must be an overriding social reason for interfering with and restricting freedom of expression’. The court found none in the case. The court ruled, ‘it is not for the district court to interpret biblical concepts’. The prosecution was also ordered to pay more than 60,000 EUR in legal costs.
the Finnish state prosecutor has publicly indicated her intent to push criminal proceedings against the MP and bishop into the fourth year.
The struggle continues
That should have been the end of the matter. But Finnish public prosecutors seem determined to silence Christians who choose biblical truth over woke progressive orthodoxy. Despite the unanimous court decision and a strong recommendation by the police not to proceed with prosecution in the first place, the Finnish state prosecutor has publicly indicated her intent to push criminal proceedings against the MP and bishop into the fourth year.
The determination of the Finnish state on continuing this prosecution despite such a clear and unanimous ruling by the Helsinki District Court is alarming. Dragging people through the courts for years, subjecting them to lengthy police interrogations, and wasting taxpayer money in order to police people’s deeply held beliefs has no place in a democratic society. Whether found guilty or not, the lengthy process is punishment in itself.
Britain’s battle
We in the UK cannot shrug this off as a regrettable incident which, whilst unfortunate, does not immediately concern us. Here in the UK, in line with other countries across Europe, we are implementing our own illiberal censorship laws.
In the UK, The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which is in its final stages, could censor public speech and expression deemed to risk causing ‘alarm’ or ‘distress’.
In Scotland, a ‘Hate Crime and Public Order Act’ was passed in 2021. Since then the police have been struggling to cope with the effects of the Act, which the public see as making it an offence to ‘hurt people’s feelings’. The scope for legislation becoming a tool in the hands of those wishing to oppose biblical views on sexuality is obvious. Calum Steele, the General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, attributes the steep rise in reported offences to ‘people taking offence at things they read on Twitter.’
Here in the UK, in line with other countries across Europe, we are implementing our own illiberal censorship laws.
Concerns have also been raised about the censorial nature of the Online Safety Bill, which will empower social media giants to remove content that might be interpreted as ‘harmful’.
Speaking out
Dr Räsänen has stressed the need for Christians to speak out. ‘I also want to encourage others to speak publicly about the gospel and express their faith. Otherwise, the space for speaking will eventually become even smaller,’ she said. ‘The more we keep silent, the more the risk to laws aiming to limit free speech will increase’.
It is her opinion that, ‘We are especially called to stand firm on those issues that contradict the spirit of the time.’ As noted in last week's Prophecy Today, the present struggle over the UK government’s intention to ban conversion therapy is ‘a mere minor skirmish on the outskirts of the real war which aims to destroy the Judaeo-Christian heritage of the nation.’ There are huge issues at stake which we cannot duck.
