Finland has shot itself in the foot after its Supreme Court convicted the country’s former Interior Minister, Päivi Räsänen, 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 case in 2021 when the Finnish Prosecutor General charged the Christian Democrat MP and Bishop Juhana Pohjola with “agitation against a minority group”. 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.
When he was a Senator, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed an open letter to the US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, Rashad Hussain, at the start of the first trial of Räsänen and Pohjola in Helsinki in January 2022.
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 beliefs that may conflict with secular trends.
"We believe that, regardless of whether Finnish prosecutors agree with the religious beliefs that MP Räsänen 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."
The comments from the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which has been supporting Räsänen and Pohjola throughout their seven-year legal ordeal, after Thursday's disappointing ruling were cleverly framed and well-targeted to resonate in Washington.
The Supreme Court acquitted Räsänen for tweeting a Bible verse in 2019 but she and the bishop were found guilty by the judges in a three-to-two decision over the church pamphlet.
Though Räsänen 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.
ADF International’s Executive Director, Paul Coleman, said: “Freedom of speech is a cornerstone of democracy. It is right that the Court has acquitted Päivi Räsänen 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 – is an outrageous example of state censorship. This decision will create a severe chilling effect for everyone’s right to speak freely.”
Kristen Waggoner, ADF’s President and Chief Counsel, added: “This 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.”
Senior US official Riley Barnes, speaking on behalf of the Trump Administration, has made his feelings clear on the conviction: "Holding Christian beliefs isn’t a crime. Finland’s 'hate speech' conviction of MP Päivi Räsänen – for simply writing a pamphlet defending the Bible – shows the tragic state of religious freedom in the West. The United States stands opposed to these ideological attacks against the Christian faith."
Committed Christian Marco Rubio is an even more formidable political adversary. Finland’s Ambassador to the US, Leena-Kaisa Mikkola, would understandably be feeling nervous right now.
Julian Mann, a former Church of England vicar, is an evangelical journalist based in Lancashire.
