Finnish lawmaker faces hate speech charge after quoting the Bible
Chief religion correspondent Lauren Green joins America Reports with the latest on Paivi Rasanens trial.
Finland Member of Parliament Päivi Räsänen is appealing her country's Supreme Court decision to criminally convict her on a count of hate speech for a decades-old pamphlet referring to homosexuality as a "developmental disorder."
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International, which represents Räsänen, told Fox News Digital that she intends to appeal her case to the European Court of Human Rights to uphold her free speech rights after the narrow 3-2 ruling last month.
"The failure of the Finnish Supreme Court to uphold freedom of speech has set a dangerous precedent in my country and across Europe," Räsänen said. "I feel it is my duty to appeal this decision, to reinstate respect for the basic human right that all are free to peacefully express their views in the public square."
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MP of the Finland's Christian Democrats Päivi Räsänen holds a bible as she speaks to media ahead of a court session at the Helsinki District Court in Helsinki, Finland on January 24, 2022. (Antti Aimo-Koivisto/Lehtikuva/AFP via Getty Images)
She continued, "I know I am not alone in facing unjust persecution under ‘hate speech’ laws that make sharing Christian beliefs a criminal offense. I make my appeal in the hope that the European Court of Human Rights will recognise that peacefully expressing one's beliefs is never a crime, and ensure that this basic freedom is protected for all."
The charge centered on a pamphlet Räsänen originally published in 2004 titled, "Male and Female He Created Them: Homosexual Relationships Challenge the Christian Understanding of Humanity," where she argued that homosexuality could be considered a "negative developmental disorder."
"[T]he scientific material unequivocally proves that homosexuality is a disorder of psycho-sexual development. Those who claim that homosexuality is a natural 'healthy' variety of sexuality nullify the evidentiary value found in family background studies for political reasons," Räsänen wrote.
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Päivi Räsänen was convicted of hate speech for authoring a 2004 pamphlet that referred to homosexuality as a "disorder." (Axel Schmidt/Reuters)
In 2021, Räsänen and Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola were formally charged with "agitation against a minority group" for the pamphlet, a 2019 tweet where she questioned her church’s sponsorship of an LGBTQ Pride event and linked to an Instagram post with a picture of Romans 1:24-27 and a 2019 live radio debate.
Räsänen and Bishop Pohjola were previously acquitted twice by lower courts in 2022 and 2023. Her 2019 tweet was also acquitted for the third time last month.
In a comment to Fox News Digital, ADF International legal counsel Lorcán Price, who is working on Räsänen's case, spoke about the importance of the appeal to combat "Europe’s censorship crisis."
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ADF International legal counsel Lorcán Price, who is representing Päivi Räsänen, criticized the "censorship crisis" in Europe. (Antti Aimo-Koivisto/Lehtikuva/AFP via Getty Images)
"Even if our clients are vindicated by the court, there is no changing that they have faced years of unjust prosecution for peaceful expression. The only long-term way to solve this problem is to repeal 'hate speech' laws in Finland and across Europe, which have been used to censor Christians and others with views that differ from those of the ruling elite," Price said.
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He continued, "Free speech was born in Europe, and it is of critical importance for Western civilization as a whole that the censorial trend, particularly evident in this case, is reversed."
