A Court in Helsinki on Wednesday dismissed all charges against a member of Finland’s Parliament and an evangelical bishop who were each accused of hate speech for expressing biblical views about homosexuality.
A unanimous panel of three judges cleared Dr. Päivi Räsänen, a physician and the country’s former interior minister, and the Rev. Juhana Pohjola, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese in Finland, of the hate crime charges.
The judges ruled that “it is not for the district court to interpret biblical concepts” and ordered prosecutors to pay more than 60,000 euros ($66,757.80 U.S.) in legal costs, the advocacy group ADF International reported.
Prosecutors have seven days in which they can appeal the ruling, the advocacy group said in a statement. At a late afternoon video news conference, Dr. Räsänen said she’d “heard that the prosecutors would likely appeal” the verdict, but “we don’t know yet.” An Associated Press report also noted the likelihood of an appeal, citing unnamed Finnish state prosecutors.
Dr. Räsänen added, “I’m ready to defend freedom of speech and religion in all necessary courts, also in [the] European Court of Human Rights, if needed.”
The physician-lawmaker told the news conference, “The ruling of the court is important for Bible-believing Christians but also more widely for freedom of speech.”
She asserted that several Finnish Christians have confided to her that they’ve begun to “self-censor” because they saw what she went through in the three-year investigation and trial process.
“I have [received] many messages from especially young Christians who have said that they are afraid to express their beliefs because their career would be hindered if they are known to be believing Christians. I think that today we have this kind of ‘cancel culture’ here in Finland,” Dr. Räsänen said.
Two of the charges against the politician stemmed from a tweet she made in 2019, when her church leadership supported a gay pride parade. In her tweet, Dr. Räsänen included a screenshot of four verses from Romans 1:24-27 that call homosexual acts “shameful.”
Along with the tweet, prosecutors cited a radio interview in late 2019 in which Dr. Räsänen questioned the role of genetics in homosexuality and a 2004 pamphlet that observers said reflected “traditional” views found in the Bible.
The pamphlet, “Male and Female He Created Them: Homosexual Relationships Challenge the Christian Concept of Humanity,” was published by Bishop Pohjola and the Finnish Luther Foundation.
Attorney Paul Coleman, ADF International’s executive director, said the court found that the state prosecutor “was cherry-picking” comments from the booklet and from Dr. Räsänen’s radio appearance with “a comedic but also a hostile interviewer” to make its case. He said the court’s ruling made clear that “speech has to be viewed in context.”
Mr. Coleman asserted, “in terms of how the court has framed this case and understood the facts of this case, [it] is very clearly aligned with what the defense put forward.”
The case drew international interest and support for the Christian politician. The Rev. Andrew Brunson, a former missionary to Turkey, attended one of her hearings, and Christian groups across the globe rallied to her cause, including one that demonstrated outside of the Finnish Embassy in Washington in 2021.
Sam Brownback, former U.S. ambassador for international religious freedom, praised the outcome.
“It should never have gone this far, but a jury in Finland has confirmed what we all knew — MP Paivi Räsänen and Bishop Juhana Pohjola enjoy a freedom of speech which includes religious speech,” Amb. Brownback tweeted. “It is a scandal that this case was prosecuted in the first place.”
And Georgetown University law professor Jonathan Turley said on Twitter the ruling favoring Dr. Räsänen “is good news for free speech, but Finland needs to reconsider the anti-free speech laws that enabled this ill-considered prosecution.”
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
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