<\/p>\n
Finnish Parliament Member P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen has reportedly been denied her electronic travel authorization (ETA), the required permit allowing her to travel to the U.K.<\/p>\n
Listen to the latest\u00a0episode\u00a0of \u201cQuick Start\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n As CBN News previously reported, R\u00e4s\u00e4nen said the British government revoked the ETA after initially approving it. The shocking purported move came after Finland\u2019s Supreme Court upheld a conviction finding R\u00e4s\u00e4nen was guilty of \u201cmaking and keeping available to the public a text that insults a group,\u201d the result of a hate speech charge.<\/p>\n The politician and doctor was acquitted on another charge related to a tweet she sent defending traditional marriage, but the guilty verdict surrounds a pamphlet she wrote that detailed a biblical view on marriage.<\/p>\n R\u00e4s\u00e4nen said she applied for the ETA and initially received a positive response in June \u2014 but that soon changed.<\/p>\n \u201cThen, just two days before my travel, I got an email from the government of U.K., where they said that my application was canceled because of what I had told about my conviction,\u201d she told CBN News, noting she had to reveal her conviction when applying.<\/p>\n R\u00e4s\u00e4nen said she\u2019s supposed to speak in Northern Ireland next month at a worldwide ministry event about freedom of speech and faith, but that she now doesn\u2019t know how she will get there. She is able to apply for a visa, which would allow her entrance if approved.<\/p>\n \u201cI got to an immigration center here in Finland to give my fingerprints, and I try to get a visa,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is a little bit more difficult and more expensive, but I don\u2019t know if it is possible; they will tell in three weeks if I can get it.\u201d<\/p>\n The irony is that R\u00e4s\u00e4nen has traveled many times to the U.K. as a member of the Finnish parliament and as the former minister of the interior.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I find it very, very odd that they do not want me to come there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Bishop Juhana Pohjola, a faith leader who was also convicted alongside R\u00e4s\u00e4nen over the same pamphlet, reportedly faced the same issue with trying to travel to Australia.<\/p>\n As for the general battle R\u00e4s\u00e4nen has faced, she told CBN News it has been seven years of court trials and chaos.<\/p>\n \u201cIt started from a Bible tweet where I took a photo from the Bible and now I\u2019m convicted for publishing and writing this pamphlet, this booklet, \u2018Male and Female He Created Them,’\u201d she said. \u201cI got this conviction last March. Before that, I was acquitted for all the charges in two courts, in district court and court of appeal, but now there was a very close vote in [the] Supreme Court, three to two, and I was convicted.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather than lamenting her own situation, the politician worries about the broader implications.<\/p>\n \u201cThis really has consequences to the freedom of speech and freedom of faith here in Finland,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd, especially, I\u2019m worried for many Christians who are now afraid because they have written very similar views \u2014 biblical views that I have in this booklet \u2014 and they are afraid that they will be in a similar process in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n R\u00e4s\u00e4nen is appealing her case to the European Court of Human Rights, where she hopes to see the Supreme Court verdict overturned.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m praying that it would give a good result,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n As the number of voices facing big-tech censorship continues to grow, please sign up for\u00a0Faithwire\u2019s daily newsletter\u00a0and download the\u00a0CBN News app, developed by our parent establishment, to stay up-to-date with the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Finnish Parliament Member P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen has reportedly been denied her electronic travel authorization (ETA), the required permit allowing her to travel to the U.K. Listen to the latest\u00a0episode\u00a0of \u201cQuick Start\u201d As CBN News previously reported, R\u00e4s\u00e4nen said the British government revoked the ETA after initially approving it. The shocking purported move came after Finland\u2019s Supreme<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[3153,72,2821,7997,3831,795,3823,5481,3574,2529],"class_list":["post-30700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jesus","tag-beliefs","tag-christian","tag-development","tag-finnish","tag-guilty","tag-latest","tag-politician","tag-reacts","tag-shocking","tag-stunned"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30700","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=30700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}