Some six weeks after banning her from British soil, the U.K. government has granted embattled Finnish politician Päivi Räsänen a travel visa.
Räsänen—a devout Christian whose legal woes began with a 2019 tweet stating her Biblical beliefs on sexuality—got the news about 45 minutes before she was scheduled to speak at a religious freedom conference in Northern Ireland.
Instead of speaking in person, Räsänen addressed the “Faith in the Public Square” conference at Stormont, Northern Ireland’s Assembly building, on Aug. 21 by video from Finland.
The next day she announced on X that she had received her U.K. visa: “Grateful to U.K. authorities and God that the visa finally arrived. Of course too late for this week’s conference. But now I’m free to travel if the UK area wants to hear about freedom of speech and religion.”
Räsänen’s long legal battle over her religious freedom and free speech has spanned seven years; the most recent judgment against her came in March after Finland’s Supreme Court arrived at a split decision, unanimously clearing her of the conviction for that 2019 tweet but upholding, 3-2, her hate speech conviction for co-writing a 2004 church pamphlet that explained the Bible’s teaching on sexuality and marriage. Her co-author, Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola, was also found guilty and was barred from traveling to the U.K.
Meanwhile, her attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom International are challenging the Finnish high court’s March decision against her before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
In June, U.K. officials granted Räsänen an electronic travel authorization (ETA) for a speaking engagement, but revoked it in July as Räsänen was en route. The U.K.’s Homeland office barred her from transiting through London’s Heathrow Airport, citing her hate speech convictions in Finland. ETAs are required for travelers without a visa to pass through U.K. border control.
Räsänen attributed the travel ban to the Finnish high court’s March decision.
“The Supreme Court’s closely divided ruling has had unexpected consequences,” Räsänen told Christian Today in July. “In addition to restricting freedom of expression, it has also created restrictions and difficulties related to travel and participation in meetings and conferences.
“My greatest concern is that this decision has left many people with uncertainty, confusion and fear about the consequences of exercising their freedom of speech and religion in a peaceful manner, and about where the line lies between lawful and prohibited speech.”
Pohjola was also denied a U.K. travel authorization.
Räsänen announced in May that she would appeal her criminal conviction to the ECHR. If she prevails, it could turn the tide for free speech across Europe. The ECHR appeal process typically takes several years.
Franklin Graham commented on Räsänen’s case in a July 15 Facebook post.
“It’s hard to believe that Finnish Member of Parliament and Christian Päivi Räsänen has been banned from flying through London’s Heathrow Airport simply for her belief on Biblical sexuality,” Graham wrote. “She has been persecuted for many years in her home country and accused of ‘hate speech’ simply for quoting what the Bible says about homosexual sin in Romans 1:24-27. Let’s pray for Päivi as she stands boldly on God’s Word and refuses to back down.”
In an interview with Decision last year at BGEA’s European Congress on Evangelism in Berlin, Räsänen said that during each of the three police interrogations she was pressured to renounce her Biblical beliefs about marriage and human sexuality.
“Each time the police gave me the possibility to renounce my texts and speeches,” she said. “And I said that, ‘I will not renounce even [with] what the consequences will be, because these are not only my opinions. These are what God has spoken in His Word, and I will not apologize.’”
Räsänen said that during her 13 hours of police interrogation she sometimes felt like she was leading a Bible study. “I had a Bible on the table and the police asked me to explain each passage very thoroughly from Genesis, the Book of Romans and also others about human sexuality and the same-sex couples and so on,” she recalled.
Räsänen said she has been strengthened in her faith after receiving messages from people who have professed faith in Christ after hearing her testimony through media reports. The Book of Acts, she said, has challenged and inspired her since she was a teenager.
“If we read Acts, we can see that how through many hardships, and even persecutions and calamities, the apostles get opportunities to preach the Gospel again, and again, and again,” she said. “But it’s the way that God [works]. So, we don’t have to be afraid of contradictions, or even persecutions or criticism against us as it is in Western countries.”
With additional reporting by Managing Editor Lee Weeks.
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