For the first time, the court in Finland has to rule whether quoting Bible verses on sex and marriage is a hate speech crime, after Finnish prosecutors accused, on January 24, 2022, two Lutheran leaders in Finland, Juhana Pohjola, Bishop at the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, excluded from the Finnish state Lutheran church for confessing the historic Christian understanding regarding sex and marriage, and Päivi Maria Räsänen, former Member of Parliament and the Minister of the Interior of Finland between 2011 and 2015, for publishing and, respectively, writing in 2004 the booklet under the title “Male and Female God Created”, presenting God’s definition of “marriage as the lifelong union of exclusively one man and one woman” and the Lord’s consideration that “only sex within those bounds is a moral good”, Joy Pullmann, executive editor of The Federalist, reported on January 25, 2022. in her article “Finnish Government Puts Christianity On Trial, Calls The Bible ‘Hate Speech’”.
According to Joy Pullmann, if convicted, Räsänen and Pohjola would face fines or up to two years in prison in the trial which will resume on February 14, 2022. Furthermore, adfinternational.org, a faith-based legal advocacy organization that protects fundamental freedoms and promotes the inherent dignity of all people, mentioned that against Päivi Räsänen, a medical doctor, mother of five children and grandmother of seven, the Finnish Prosecutor General brought at the end of April 2021 three criminal charges – for “having engaged in “hate speech” for publicly voicing her opinion on marriage and human sexuality in a 2004 pamphlet, for comments made on a 2019 radio show, and a tweet directed at her church leadership.” According the prosecutor, the trial “is not about the Bible or about beliefs”, however, criminalizing Bible quotations is an accuse not against the human being who quotes only, but against God, as it is written in 1 Samuel 8:7, second part.
Dr. Päivi Räsänen in conversation with Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison, president of the LCMS,
a photo from https://reporter.lcms.org/, the official newspaper of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod ( LCMS).
Written by Margarit Zhekov
