{"id":24187,"date":"2026-03-29T00:40:55","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T00:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=24187"},"modified":"2026-03-29T00:40:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T00:40:55","slug":"finland-has-shot-itself-in-the-foot-in-convicting-paivi-rasanen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=24187","title":{"rendered":"Finland has shot itself in the foot in convicting P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Finland has shot itself in the foot after its Supreme Court\u00a0convicted\u00a0the country\u2019s former Interior Minister, P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen, and an evangelical Lutheran Bishop for hate speech over a 22-year-old church pamphlet criticising homosexual practice.<\/p>\n

There is now a strongly pro-free-speech Republican administration in the US under President Trump. This was not the case in 2021 when the Finnish Prosecutor General charged the Christian Democrat MP and Bishop Juhana Pohjola with \u201cagitation against a minority group\u201d. Then Joe Biden, ushering in a Democrat administration with a penchant for conspiring with tech companies to censor politically-incorrect opinions, had just become US President.<\/p>\n

When he was a Senator, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed an open letter\u00a0to the US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, Rashad Hussain, at the start of the first trial of R\u00e4s\u00e4nen and Pohjola in Helsinki in January 2022.<\/p>\n

Five Republican Senators told Hussain: “We are greatly concerned that the use of Finnish law is tantamount to a secular blasphemy law. It could open the door for prosecution of other devout Christians, Muslims, Jews and adherents of other faiths for publicly stating their religious\u00a0beliefs that may conflict with secular trends.<\/p>\n

“We believe that, regardless of whether Finnish prosecutors agree with the religious beliefs that MP R\u00e4s\u00e4nen and Bishop Pohjola have expressed, all people have a fundamental right to the freedoms of religion and speech, which should be upheld without fear of government interference.”<\/p>\n

The comments from the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which has been supporting R\u00e4s\u00e4nen and Pohjola throughout their seven-year legal ordeal, after Thursday’s disappointing ruling were cleverly framed and well-targeted to resonate in Washington.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court acquitted R\u00e4s\u00e4nen for tweeting a Bible verse in 2019\u00a0but she and the bishop were found guilty by the judges\u00a0in a three-to-two decision\u00a0over the church pamphlet.<\/p>\n

Though R\u00e4s\u00e4nen told an ADF press conference on March 26 that her position in the Finnish Parliament is unaffected by the conviction, she, the bishop and the organisation that published the pamphlet now face fines totalling around 8,000 Euros.<\/p>\n

ADF International\u2019s Executive Director, Paul Coleman, said:\u00a0\u201cFreedom of speech is a cornerstone of democracy. It is right that the Court has acquitted P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen for her 2019 Bible verse tweet. However, the conviction for a simple church pamphlet published decades ago – before the law under which she has been convicted was even passed \u2013 is an outrageous example of state censorship. This decision will create a severe chilling effect for\u00a0everyone\u2019s\u00a0right to speak freely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kristen Waggoner, ADF\u2019s President and Chief Counsel, added:\u00a0\u201cThis ruling is a stark reminder that no democracy is immune from the erosion of fundamental freedoms. Punishing peaceful expression, especially when it is based on deeply held religious convictions, undermines the very foundation of free societies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior US official Riley Barnes, speaking on behalf of the Trump Administration, has made his feelings clear on the conviction: “Holding Christian beliefs isn\u2019t a crime. Finland\u2019s ‘hate speech’ conviction of MP P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen \u2013 for simply writing a pamphlet defending the Bible \u2013 shows the tragic state of religious freedom in the West. The United States stands opposed to these ideological attacks against the Christian faith.”<\/p>\n

Committed Christian Marco Rubio is an even more formidable political adversary. Finland\u2019s Ambassador to the US, Leena-Kaisa Mikkola,<\/strong>\u00a0would understandably be feeling nervous right now.<\/p>\n

Julian Mann, a former Church of England vicar, is an evangelical journalist based in Lancashire.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen\u00a0(Photo: ADF International) Finland has shot itself in the foot after its Supreme Court\u00a0convicted\u00a0the country\u2019s former Interior Minister, P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen, and an evangelical Lutheran Bishop for hate speech over a 22-year-old church pamphlet criticising homosexual practice. There is now a strongly pro-free-speech Republican administration in the US under President Trump. This was not the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[8048,8047,4938,419,420,3154],"class_list":["post-24187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-christian-living","tag-convicting","tag-finland","tag-foot","tag-paivi","tag-rasanen","tag-shot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24187","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=24187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}