{"id":40448,"date":"2026-05-13T08:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/40448\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T08:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:11:09","slug":"europe-last-stop-in-paivi-rasanens-fight-for-freedom-of-expression-evangelical-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/40448\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe, last stop in P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen\u2019s fight for freedom of expression, Evangelical Focus"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Finnish medical doctor and Member of Parliament, P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen, announced on Thursday that she has lodged an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) after being found guilty last March<\/a> of \u201chate speech\u201d in connection with a Bible booklet published more than two decades ago.<\/p>\n

R\u00e4s\u00e4nen believes that the decision of the Finnish Supreme Court \u2014 adopted by a narrow majority of 3 votes to 2 \u2014 sets \u201ca dangerous precedent\u201d for freedom of expression and religion, both in Finland and across the rest of Europe<\/a>. The MP maintains that appealing to the ECHR is \u201ca duty\u201d to defend the fundamental right to express one\u2019s beliefs peacefully in the public sphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that the Court will send a clear message that no one should be subjected to a similar criminal process. Peaceful discussion must not be labeled a crime\u201d, she added.<\/p>\n

All Evangelical Focus news and opinion,\u00a0on your WhatsApp<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The case dates back to 2019<\/a>, when the police launched an investigation into the MP following the publication of a post on social media platform X in which she quoted Romans 1:24\u201327 to criticise the support of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland\u2014to which she then belonged\u2014for LGBT Pride events.<\/p>\n

For six years<\/a>, R\u00e4s\u00e4nen was subjected to various legal proceedings and was acquitted on two occasions by lower courts. Finally, the Finnish Supreme Court acquitted her of the charges relating to the tweet, ruling that it was a biblical quotation and did not constitute hate speech, but upheld the conviction linked to a leaflet published in 2004.<\/p>\n

The text, entitled Male and Female He Created Them: Homosexual Relationships Challenge the Christian Concept of Humanity, was deemed by the high court to be potentially offensive to homosexual people, particularly for describing homosexuality as \u201cintrinsically disordered\u201d.<\/p>\n

As a result of the ruling, R\u00e4s\u00e4nen was ordered to pay a fine of \u20ac1,800 and all physical and digital copies of the pamphlet were ordered to be destroyed. Juhana Pohjola, the Lutheran bishop responsible for publishing the text more than twenty years ago, was also found guilty.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The legal proceedings have raised international concern<\/a> due to their implications for freedom of expression. Among others, the case has been monitored by the US State Department and by organisations defending civil and religious liberties<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Protestante Digital and Evangelical Focus\u00a0last year<\/a>, R\u00e4s\u00e4nen stated that the case affects not only her personal situation, but also the possibility of publicly defending biblical teachings in Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never had a case quite like this before. It\u2019s not just important for Christians, but for anyone who values the freedom to express deeply held beliefs, convictions, or faith\u201d, said the Finnish MP at the time, describing the trial as \u201cBible trial\u201d, an expression also used by some secular media outlets in her country.<\/p>\n

In that conversation, held during the European Evangelism Congress in Berlin, R\u00e4s\u00e4nen explained that, despite the wear and tear of six years of investigation and court proceedings, she had experienced \u201cmore joy than suffering\u201d, believing the case had opened up opportunities for her to speak publicly about the Gospel and fundamental freedoms.<\/p>\n

From the beginning, the parliamentarian and former Interior Minister of Finland has been warning of the deterrent effect that such proceedings can have on other Christians<\/a>. \u201cThe greatest threat to these freedoms is self-censorship: the fear of speaking out,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n

Now, with the appeal lodged before the ECHR, R\u00e4s\u00e4nen hopes that the European court will reaffirm that the peaceful expression of religious convictions cannot be considered a crime and set a precedent that protects freedom of expression and religion across Europe.<\/p>\n

\n Published in: Evangelical Focus<\/a> – europe<\/a>
\n – Europe, last stop in P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen\u2019s fight for freedom of expression\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Finnish medical doctor and Member of Parliament, P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen, announced on Thursday that she has lodged an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11438,24348,10883,10874,10881,13841,4,15,26067,10882,1533,10878,115,3323,10884,1127,11012],"class_list":{"0":"post-40448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-europe","8":"tag-censorship","9":"tag-christians","10":"tag-church-news","11":"tag-court","12":"tag-digital-evangelical-news","13":"tag-ethics","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-european","16":"tag-european-court-of-human-rightschristian-news","17":"tag-evangelical-news","18":"tag-finland","19":"tag-freedom-of-speech","20":"tag-human-rights","21":"tag-paivi-rasanen","22":"tag-religion-news","23":"tag-religious-freedom","24":"tag-values"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}