When Päivi Räsänen, a veteran Christian member of Finland’s Parliament, recently booked flights with a layover in London, the United Kingdom refused to let her into the country.
She told the Daily Signal that the UK initially approved her visa application, but days before her flight, the government notified her it had been canceled.
The rules for Electronic Travel Authorisation state that entry clearance or permission “must be refused” when an applicant “has committed a criminal offence, or offences, which caused serious harm.”
In March, Finland’s highest court convicted the 66-year-old grandmother of 12 of “hate speech” over a 20-year-old pamphlet citing the Bible.
CHRISTIAN MP BLAMES THE BAN ON HER HATE SPEECH CONVICTION FOR QUOTING THE BIBLE
The politician was fined A$3,000, but not jailed.
The UK concluded her crime caused “serious harm” despite no evidence to support that.
Dr. Räsänen, who is also a medical doctor, pointed out that she had been convicted under a section of law for “war crimes and crimes against humanity,” just for quoting the Bible.
The MP is a member of the Finnish Parliament’s “friendship group” with the UK Parliament.
Next month, she had planned to speak in Northern Ireland at a conference about freedom of speech.
Unless the UK government intervenes, that appears unlikely at this stage.
BACKGROUND TO FINNISH MP’S “HATE SPEECH” CONVICTION
Dr. Räsänen’s case dates back to 2019, when she criticised her own Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland for supporting a Pride event.
“How does the doctrine of the church, the Bible, fit together with the fact that shame and sin are raised as a matter of ‘pride’?” she tweeted.
Her tweet included a photo of the 2004 pamphlet titled “As Man and Woman He Created Them,” explaining the Bible’s position on sexuality and marriage.
The photo cites Romans 1:24-27, which partly reads, “women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones” and “men committed shameful acts with other men.”
THREE ACQUITTALS AND THEN A NARROW MAJORITY CONVICTION
Prosecutors charged her with “hate speech.”
The Helsinki District Court acquitted her in March 2022, and the appeals court similarly acquitted her in November 2023, but prosecutors kept appealing.
The prosecution claimed that the court failed to “fully perceive and understand” the “degrading and dehumanising” message against “homosexuals.”
In March, Finland’s Supreme Court upheld the acquittal for the Bible verse tweet, but a 3-2 majority convicted her, along with Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola, of hate speech for expressing their beliefs on Christianity and sexuality in the 2004 church pamphlet.
The MP was also convicted of “making and keeping available to the public a text that insults a group.”
“THIS IS ABOUT A VERY CLASSICAL VIEW OF MARRIAGE AND GENDER”
The two Finns are appealing the decision at the European Court of Human Rights.
“It is about, I’d say, a very classical Christian view of marriage and gender,” Dr. Räsänen told the Daily Signal.
The pamphlet said that “homosexuality is a deviation from the original, God-created sexuality.”
“The Supreme Court said: It is illegal to say that,” the veteran politician recalled.
“You should say that it is a normal variation, not a deviation.”
“MANY PEOPLE IN FINLAND ARE AFRAID BECAUSE THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY CAN SAY”
The Christian legislator said that following her conviction: “Many people in Finland are afraid because they do not know what is legal and what is illegal to say.”
She noted that “thousands of pastors” have delivered sermons with such statements, and that similar language appears in the Finnish translation of the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church.
“I’m sure that the prosecutor will not attack or target the Roman Catholic Church,” she said.
When asked whether prosecutors have brought similar charges against other Christians, she said: “Not yet.”
CONVICTED CHRISTIAN MP WILL STILL RUN FOR POLITICAL OFFICE
Dr. Räsänen, who has spent 31 years in Parliament, plans to run for re-election next year.
It will be her first race as a “convicted criminal.”
She blamed “hostility” to Christianity and a misunderstanding of sin for the prosecution against her.
“They have argued that if you say that homosexual relationships are sinful, then you think that these people are inferior to other people, even though I have said very clearly that all people are equal, we all are created as the image of God,” the Christian legislator said.
“I HAVE SAID MANY TIMES IN COURT I AM ALSO A SINNER”
“I have said it many times in court that I am also a sinner,” Dr. Räsänen explained.
“We are all sinners, and we are in need of grace in Jesus, in his atonement on the cross.”
Dr. Rasanen argued that the “post-Christian West” has neglected the Christian faith, and forgotten the “core message of the Bible.”
While it is no picnic to face criminal charges for her faith, the legislator said the prosecution has given her an opportunity to share the Gospel.
HOW PERSECUTED MP LED ONE OF HER CRITICS TO CHRIST
She recalled a message from a young man last year.
When he heard about her case in 2019, he identified as an atheist and homosexual, and was angry with her.
When he reached out back then, she engaged with him, and shared the Gospel.
“He said that after his conversation with me, he has found Christ, and he has found a way to eternal life,” the MP recalled.
“I understood that all this is not in vain,” she said.
“It is not in vain to defend these freedoms. It is not in vain to share the message of the Bible.”
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