Attorneys are warning about the “severe chilling effect” of the Finnish Supreme Court’s ruling against Päivi Räsänen, a Christian member of Parliament who long faced hate speech charges for tweeting a Bible verse.
The Supreme Court upheld Räsänen’s acquittal for posting a Bible verse in 2019, but the 3-2 majority convicted her, along with Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola, of hate speech for expressing their beliefs on Christianity and sexuality in a 2004 church pamphlet.
“It is right that the court has acquitted Päivi Räsänen for her 2019 Bible verse tweet,” Paul Coleman, executive director of ADF International, which represented Räsänen, said in a statement Thursday. “However, the conviction for a simple church pamphlet published decades ago—before the law under which she has been convicted was even passed—is an outrageous example of state censorship.”
“This decision will create a severe chilling effect for everyone’s right to speak freely,” Coleman added.
Speaking with reporters at a press conference after the ruling, Räsänen said the court’s decision “sends a troubling and contradictory message about the state of fundamental freedoms in Finland.”
She asked whether Fins are “truly free to express our opinions,” and noted that “without that freedom, there is no real democracy.”
A medical doctor and grandmother of twelve, Räsänen said she is consulting with her attorneys about a possible appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
Coleman condemned the ruling, but noted that “vague and subjective hate speech laws” allow prosecutors a wide latitude.
Räsänen’s attorneys claimed the court “cherrypicked” passages from the 2004 pamphlet.
The court convicted her on the basis that she continued to share the 2004 pamphlet after authorities launched an investigation in 2019.
The conviction carries a 20-day fine, calculated according to Räsänen’s income.
The Prosecution’s Argument
When the Helsinki District Court unanimously acquitted Räsänen of the charges in March 2022, the prosecution appealed the case.
The prosecution argued the court “misinterpreted” Räsänen’s tweet, according to a translation of the Finnish documents. (Alliance Defending Freedom International, which represents Räsänen, provided the translation to The Daily Signal. The Daily Signal separately obtained the documents from the Finnish court.)
The prosecution claimed that the court failed to “fully perceive and understand” the “degrading and dehumanizing” message against “homosexuals and … their right to dignity and self-determination.”
“In order to protect the dignity and equality of homosexuals, it is necessary to exclude Räsänen’s statements from freedom of expression by interpreting them as punishable hate speech directed at them [homosexuals],” the prosecution wrote.
The Tweet and Pamphlet
Räsänen, 62, has served in the Finnish Parliament since 1995 and served as interior minister from 2011 to 2015. She is a member of the center-right Christian Democrats party.
Her case dates to June 2019, when she criticized the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland for supporting an LGBTQ+ Pride event.
“The whole case started when I criticized the leadership of the church because of its support for the ‘Pride’ event on Twitter,” Räsänen previously told The Daily Signal.
“The church has announced that it is the official partner of [the LGBTQ+ group] SETA in Pride 2019,” the legislator tweeted. “How does the doctrine of the church, the Bible, fit together with the fact that shame and sin are raised as a matter of ‘pride’?”
Her tweet included a photo of the 2004 pamphlet titled “As Man and Woman He Created Them,” explaining the Bible’s position on sexuality and marriage with citations from the Old and New Testaments. The photo cites Romans 1:24-27, which reads, “women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones” and “men committed shameful acts with other men.”
‘Steadfast’
The member of parliament told reporters Thursday that she remains “steadfast” in her convictions, despite the seven-year legal battle.
“It has not been in vain to speak about these biblical issues,” she said. Strangers have reached out to her, thanking her for her stance and even stating that her courage inspired them to accept Jesus.
“I trust in God and I believe that this is also in God’s hands,” she concluded.