{"id":24050,"date":"2026-03-28T00:52:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T00:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=24050"},"modified":"2026-03-28T00:52:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T00:52:31","slug":"landmark-ruling-expected-in-finnish-politicians-bible-tweet-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=24050","title":{"rendered":"Landmark ruling expected in Finnish politician’s Bible tweet case"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen<\/span>\u00a0(Photo: Getty\/iStock)<\/span><\/p>\n

A verdict is expected to be handed down today in the long-running case against Finnish Member of Parliament P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen and Lutheran Bishop, Juhana Pohjola.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both were charged with “hate speech” after publicly expressing biblical views about marriage and sexuality in a pamphlet they co-published in 2004.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The charges against Mrs R\u00e4s\u00e4nen, a former Minister of the Interior and boss of the Finnish police, also related to expression of these views in a tweet and comments she made during a live radio debate in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the tweet, she had criticised her denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, for sponsoring a Pride event in Helsinki, and shared\u00a0an image of a Bible verse from Romans chapter 1, which states, \u201cThe men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was charged with \u201cagitation against a minority group\u201d in 2021 under a section of the Finnish criminal code titled \u201cwar crimes and crimes against humanity\u201d. Bishop Pohjola was charged in connection with publishing R\u00e4s\u00e4nen\u2019s 2004 pamphlet. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Mrs R\u00e4s\u00e4nen and Bishop Pohjola were both later cleared by the District Court of Helsinki and the Court of Appeal but the state prosecution appealed to the Finnish Supreme Court, which heard the case last October.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Paul Coleman, director of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which has coordinated their legal defence, said the verdict “will be pivotal for free speech in Finland and across Europe”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“At stake is the fundamental right of every individual to express deeply held beliefs without fear of criminal sanction,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We are hopeful that the court will uphold the rule of law and confirm that peaceful expression, including the sharing of religious views, remains protected in a free and democratic society.”<\/p>\n

If found guilty, Mrs R\u00e4s\u00e4nen and Bishop Pohjola face a fine of 10,000 euros each and the censorship of their comments. Thursday’s decision of the Finnish Supreme Court is final.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking after last October’s hearing, Mr Coleman said that the stakes in the case are “extremely high\u201d, warning that a guilty verdict would \u201cset a new low for freedom of expression in Europe and specifically for Christians\u201d, while also opening the door for the criminalisation of many other people in Finland who have expressed similar views publicly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If, however, the Supreme Court upholds the previous not guilty verdicts of the lower courts, it will \u201cset a very strong precedent in Finland \u2026 and strengthen the legal standard whether [people] agree with P\u00e4ivi or not\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kristen Waggoner, president of ADF International, said “a 6-year prosecution for tweeting a Bible verse should never have happened at all”.<\/p>\n

“We can no longer take liberty for granted in the West,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen\u00a0(Photo: Getty\/iStock) A verdict is expected to be handed down today in the long-running case against Finnish Member of Parliament P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen and Lutheran Bishop, Juhana Pohjola.\u00a0\u00a0 Both were charged with “hate speech” after publicly expressing biblical views about marriage and sexuality in a pamphlet they co-published in 2004.\u00a0 The charges against Mrs R\u00e4s\u00e4nen,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[45,319,6593,7997,2110,3363,262,423],"class_list":["post-24050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-christian-living","tag-bible","tag-case","tag-expected","tag-finnish","tag-landmark","tag-politicians","tag-ruling","tag-tweet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}