Pro-Life Finnish MP Who Was Charged With Hate Crime for Posting Bible Verses to Face Supreme Court
Two months after a Finnish Court of Appeals found a member of parliament, Päivi Räsänen, not guilty of committing hate speech by quoting the bible in a Twitter post, prosecutors have announced they are appealing the ruling to the country’s Supreme Court in a bid to see her jailed and punished.
In 2019, she wrote a post asking why the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland was participating in a Pride event and parade in Helsinki, including a picture of Romans 1:24-27 ( Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts…) in her post.
After several people called the police about it, Räsänen was investigated and charged with a hate crime. Despite going to two trials and being exonerated twice over it, prosecutors will not quit, seeking to have her jailed and also pay tens of thousands of euros in fines, hoping that they will be successful before the highest court in the land.
Räsänen is unapologetic, however, and is ready to face what may come, saying in a statement:
After my full exoneration in two courts, I’m not afraid of a hearing before the Supreme Court. Even though I am fully aware that every trial carries risks, an acquittal from the Supreme Court would set an even stronger positive precedent for everyone’s right to free speech and religion. And if the Court decided to overturn the lower courts’ acquittals, I am ready to defend freedom of speech and religion as far as the European Court of Human rights, if necessary.
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The only hate here is the hate Jesus spoke of in John 15:18
I really have no idea what it’s like to be a Christian in Finland because in Europe it seems like there is a very wide line separating “culture” from “Christianity” and a lot of people seem to be pretty content living on that line as long as it’s socially acceptable.
Even though we will probably never meet this side of heaven it is encouraging to see other Christians taking a stand and I pray that my Finnish brothers and sisters in Christ will overcome and take comfort in the fact that greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).
As of late April sister Päivi is being brought to court a third time for the same thing