IS THE BIBLE ON TRIAL?

 Finland is generally considered one of the freest countries in the world. Finland’s Constitution guarantees the freedom of expression for “everyone,” which protects the rights of all people “to express, disseminate and receive information, opinions and other communications without prior prevention by anyone.”

Freedom House, an organization that measures political rights and civil liberties, gave Finland a perfect 100 out of 100 “freedom score” in 2022. The score suggests, Finland is even freer than the United States, which Freedom House scored an 83 out of 100.

 

But despite these lofty promises, Finnish officials are blatantly attacking free speech. Alliance Defending Freedom believes that there is no clearer example of this fact than the actions taken by the country’s own Prosecutor General against Dr Päivi Räsänen.

 

Dr Päivi Räsänen is a medical doctor and elected official in Finland. She has served as a member of the Finnish Parliament since 1995, and she was the chair of the Christian Democratic Party from 2004-2015. In addition, Dr Räsänen served as Minister of the Interior from 2011 to 2015. She has five children and 11 grandchildren, and her Christian faith is a large part of her life.

 

Dr Räsänen is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. In 2019, she posted a tweet questioning her church’s official partnership with the LGBT event “Pride 2019,” including a picture of some Bible verses. But this simple expression of her beliefs soon caused Dr Räsänen to face criminal charges.

 

As a result of her post questioning her church’s promotion of an LGBT event, Dr Räsänen was accused of “hate speech.” Even though the tweet remains published on X (Twitter), because it did not violate the platform’s own “hate speech” rules, Finland’s Prosecutor General started pursuing criminal charges against Dr Räsänen.

 

A few months after the tweet was posted, authorities opened an investigation into whether it constituted a crime of “ethnic agitation.” Section 10 of the Criminal Code of Finland says a person can be charged with “agitation against a minority group” if they spread “an expression of opinion or another message where a certain group is threatened, defamed or insulted on the basis of its race, skin color, birth status, national or ethnic origin, religion or belief, sexual orientation or disability or a comparable basis.”

 

Three days after authorities opened an investigation into the tweet, the prosecutor general requested investigations into a pamphlet Dr Räsänen had written in 2004 regarding her church’s teaching on human sexuality. This investigation also led to a criminal charge against the Rev. Dr Juhana Pohjola, chairman of the International Lutheran Council, for publishing the pamphlet.

 

In April 2021, Finland’s prosecutor general brought three criminal charges against Dr Räsänen—one for the 2004 pamphlet, one for the 2019 tweet, and a third for engaging in a debate about human sexuality on a 2019 live radio debate. In a unanimous ruling in March 2022, a court dismissed all charges against them. The court found in the ruling that it was “not for the district court to interpret biblical concepts,” and it ordered the prosecution to pay more than 60,000 Euros in legal costs. But Finland’s prosecutor general did not allow the case to end there.

 

The prosecutor general appealed the district court’s decision, and on Nov. 14, 2023, the Helsinki Court of Appeal issued its ruling in Dr Räsänen’s case. Just like the district court, the court of appeal unanimously acquitted her and the bishop of all the criminal charges brought against them.

 

Sadly, even after two unanimous rulings, the prosecutor general has still refused to respect the free speech rights of Dr Räsänen and Bishop Pohjola, and in January 2024 appealed to the Finnish Supreme Court. In April, the court agreed to hear the case.

 

I fully agree with Alliance Defending Freedom in saying that “free speech is an integral part of any democratic society. Everyone should be free to express their own beliefs without fear of government punishment or censorship.” However, while Finland claims to protect free speech, it prosecuted two of its citizens simply for sharing their beliefs. Speech will not be free in Finland until prosecutors stop using vague allegations of “hate speech” to target citizens for peacefully voicing their beliefs. According to the Finnish Prosecutor to the Christians charged, “… you can keep your Bibles, just don’t say you believe what it says”. Say what? It sounds as though it is the Bible on trial.

 

In America, concerns are arising regarding Christian prosecution and persecution as many believers and faith leaders are seeking clarity on the situation. The land known for its foundational principle of religious freedom now faces a complex reality where expressions of faith are occasionally met with opposition, legal challenges, or social pressures.

 

In attempting to deal with the issue of violence in Jamaica, the National Violence Prevention Commission recommended to the government “a total ban” on corporal punishment. Prime Minister Andrew Holness believes corporal punishment is tantamount to a violent means of disciplining children – “… it is a violation of the person-hood of the child.”

 

How should we view that approach in light of Proverbs 22:15 – “A youngster’s heart is filled with foolishness, but physical discipline will drive it far away” (New Living Translation). Although considered as corporal punishment, responsible physical discipline by loving parents must be encouraged and not maligned.