The Bible, free speech, and religious freedom are all endangered in the West because of government censorship in several countries, including Finland, Free Press contributor Kara Kennedy recently wrote.
Kennedy highlighted the case of Finnish parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen, whom prosecutors have targeted for years because she made a post on X in 2019 expressing Christian views on marriage and same-sex relationships. She questioned the Evangelical Lutheran Church’s decision to sponsor an LGBT event and referenced Romans 1:27: “And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error.”
As CatholicVote previously reported, prosecutors have accused her of hate speech and dragged litigation on for years, even though lower courts acquitted her twice of hate speech charges.
Kennedy noted that though Räsänen recently appeared before the Finnish Supreme Court, a verdict has not yet been reached. Just before her court appearance, Rasanen told reporters, “My case will show whether quoting the Bible can become a crime in a free country.”
During the hearing, prosecutors urged the court to convict Räsänen as a criminal because of her “interpretation and opinion about the Bible verses.” A prosecutor maintained that the state is not attacking Christianity or the authors of the Bible but rather those who interpret Scripture.
Kennedy questioned how Räsänen’s actions could be perceived as “criminal” and said that the prosecution is changing the definition of hate speech.
“According to the prosecution, Räsänen’s defense of scripture was ‘insulting,’” Kennedy wrote. “Räsänen should have known, it said, that her words could be offensive to certain people and therefore refrained from speaking. The state argued that her ‘intent is irrelevant’ and that what is relevant is how others interpret what she said. Under this view, the threshold for hate speech is not incitement or calls to violence, but emotional impact.”
Kennedy noted that Räsänen’s lawyer, Alliance Defending Freedom International attorney Paul Coleman, said that regardless of the verdict, the case has influenced the Western idea of religious freedom. Räsänen said pastors in Finland are concerned that what happened to her might happen to them and are asking her to proof their sermons to highlight potentially inflammatory content before they risk giving them.
“The average Finn probably doesn’t agree with Räsänen, or the Book of Romans’ statements about gay relationships. In 2019, the year she tweeted, 76 percent of Finns supported gay marriage,” Kennedy concluded. “But the fact is that many Christians do accept the Bible’s teaching on sexuality. Others might find their beliefs cruel, wrong, or distasteful — but in a free society, that shouldn’t decide whether they’re allowed to express them.”
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