Trump admin weighs in as Finland targets politician for opposing gender ideology
The Trump administration last week criticized Finland’s repeated prosecution of a politician for challenging LGBT orthodoxy.
The Finnish Supreme Court will hear a complaint against Päivi Räsänen, a devout Christian MP who in 2004 published a pamphlet for her church titled “As Man and Woman He Created Them.” Citing the Bible, the pamphlet defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Then, in a 2019 tweet, Räsänen criticized Finland’s Evangelical Lutheran Church for sponsoring a same-sex celebration event, questioning its consistency with the Bible. That year she also expressed the same sentiment in a radio debate.
For those actions, Räsänen was charged with “ethnic agitation” which falls under “war crimes and crimes against humanity” in the Finnish criminal code. When she was first indicted in 2021, the mother of five and grandmother of ten was subjected to an estimated 13 hours in interrogation.
Finnish Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola, who helped Räsänen write the 2004 pamphlet, was tried alongside her. They were acquitted in 2022 and again by the Helsinki Court of Appeals in 2023.
Trump admin: A ‘baseless’ case
Prosecutors have now filed a complaint with the country’s Supreme Court, drawing criticism from the US State Department.
“In a democracy, no one should face trial for peacefully sharing their beliefs,” said the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, & Labor in a statement on September 10th. “The case against Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen, which accuses her of hate speech for simply posting a Bible verse, is baseless, as two courts have unanimously found.”
The bureau added a passage from Matthew 5:11: “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”
Räsänen expressed her gratitude to the Trump administration. “I’m thankful that the US State Department has taken note of my case and expressed its support,” she said in a statement published by ADF International, her legal defense team. “In a free society, it should never be a crime to share a Bible verse or express beliefs rooted in faith."
Prosecutors are arguing that while quoting the Bible is permissible, Räsänen’s interpretations of the Bible are criminal. And even if her Biblical exegesis is correct, it is “offensive to certain people” and therefore should not have been said.
“You can cite the Bible, but it is Räsänen’s interpretation and opinion about the Bible verses that are criminal,” said Finnish State Prosecutor Anu Mantila.
