In a decision released this morning, Finland’s supreme court voted 3-2 to convict a bishop and a member of parliament for publishing a pamphlet explaining Christian theology about sexual differences. The decision could tacitly ban orthodox Christianity in Finland by banning Christians from speaking about what the Bible clearly says.
Bishop Juhana Pohjola and Member of Parliament Paivi Rasanen face thousands of euros in fines and their challenged Christian speech “removed from public access and destroyed,” the court ordered, unless they successfully appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. If they appeal, the case could affect speech and conscience rights worldwide.
“I am shocked and profoundly disappointed that the court has failed to recognize my basic human right to freedom of expression,” Rasanen said in a statement after the verdict was announced. “I stand by the teachings of my Christian faith, and will continue to defend my and every person’s right to share their convictions in the public square.”
The ruling is the latest in a growing pattern of anti-Christian speech repression spreading across formerly Christian European countries. England now jails more people per day for alleged speech crimes than Vladimir Putin’s Russia, according to a former U.S. ambassador, even imprisoning and prosecuting people for praying silently on public property.
Last year, British authorities arrested Irish comedian Graham Linehan for criticizing transgender policies. Glasgow, Scotland is prosecuting a grandmother for offering to talk with people outside a hospital. Sweden is prosecuting a family for “religious extremism” for attending church regularly and not allowing their teen to own a cell phone.
New internet censorship laws in Europe also effectively criminalize and ban Christian speech and any speech opposing identity politics. As The Federalist reported last year, “Last year the European Union, of which Finland is a member, implemented a Digital Services Act that imposes a vast web of internet censorship, potentially across the entire world, by regulating social media monopolies. The act could subject Europeans to even more fines, raids, and imprisonment for posts that observe men and women are different.” The Federalist is a specific, named target of European censorship, which also controls what Americans can read online.
Numerous U.S. states and cities have passed similar “hate speech” laws and regulations that apply similar legal prejudices to Christians and any citizen who questions identity politics. New teacher licensing requirements in Minnesota, for example, effectively ban faithful Christians from teaching in state-run schools.
Rasanen wrote the banned booklet judged to violate Finnish “hate speech” laws in 2004, seven years before the law being used to criminalize it was passed. Pohjola published the booklet online and in print as part of a theological education series. Finland’s top prosecutor began to prosecute them in 2019, after Rasanen tweeted a Bible verse to publicly rebuke Finland’s state church for sponsoring a queer parade.
The tweet led to a government investigation into Rasanen’s writings and speech spanning her three decades as a public official. The investigation included 13 hours of police interrogating her. It also uncovered the booklet Rasanen wrote and Pohjola published. It is titled, “Male and Female He Created Them.”
The case is known as “the Bible trial” in Europe. In its judgment out Thursday morning U.S. time, Finland’s Supreme Court unanimously acquitted Rasanen of one charge, based on her tweeting a Bible verse, while judging her and Pohjola criminally liable for producing “Male and Female He Created Them.” That booklet title is a quote from the Bible’s first chapter, in the book of Genesis.
According to Alliance Defending Freedom International, which has provided legal support in the case, “The Court found Räsänen and the Bishop guilty for having ‘made available to the public and kept available to the public opinions that insult homosexuals as a group on the basis of their sexual orientation.’ It held that: ‘it must be taken into account that the text forming the basis for the conviction did not contain incitement to violence or comparable threat-like fomenting of hatred. The conduct is therefore not particularly serious in terms of the nature of the offense.’”
Rasanen and her lawyers have maintained throughout her seven-year prosecution that she supports freedom of speech for all people and believes that all are equal before God regardless of what group they identify with. Rasanen, a medical doctor and pastor’s wife, has steadfastly argued that speaking the truth as God defines it is an act of love, not hatred.
Finland’s hate crimes law is a part of its “war crimes and crimes against humanity” code. Its provisions protect people based on identity politics categories and are patterned after Soviet speech-crime laws, ADF counsel Paul Coleman told The Federalist in a previous interview. Two lower Finnish courts unanimously acquitted the pair on grounds of freedom of speech and religion.
In the ruling, the high court essentially accepted the argument Finnish prosecutor Anu Mantila made in a lower court: “You can cite the Bible, but it is Räsänen’s interpretation and opinion about the Bible verses that are criminal.”
The fact that men and women are different is at the heart of Christian teaching about marriage. If men and women are different, then two men or two women in a sexual relationship are not the same as a man and a woman. That confusion is at the heart of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch’s illogical and unconstitutional majority opinion in 2020’s Bostock v. Clayton County, which forces employers to treat men and women as interchangeable.
The Finnish Christians’ lawyers point out that even if their clients are ultimately acquitted — an uncertain prospect — their prosecution itself chills speech and religious freedom globally. Anyone who wants to voice non-state-approved ideas in Finland and across Europe, including Christian beliefs, is now on notice that doing so could mean years of investigation, prosecution, court appearances, legal costs, and punitive fines.
In 2014, Pohjola was ejected from Finland’s state-controlled church for adhering to orthodox Christian theology about male and female differences. Besides overseeing Finland’s non-state Lutheran church, Pohjola is the chairman of the International Lutheran Council, a missions organization of biblically based Lutheranism. Forty-five Lutheran church bodies across the world issued public letters of support for Pohjola and Rasanen “for expressing biblical views on human sexuality.”
“The vast majority of Christians in all nations, including Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, share these convictions,” the pastors noted. “… democratic societies worldwide guard religious freedom and freedom of expression as vitally important. Legal protection of these rights is founded on the inherent dignity of the human person who has the natural right to engage in public discourse on issues related to the meaning and purpose of society and human flourishing.”
Finland is the second-newest North Atlantic Treaty Organization member and recipient of immense U.S. financial and military benefits. As a senator, current U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly stated Finland’s prosecution of Rasanen was “ridiculous.”
Last year, the Trump State Department tweeted that the prosecution of Rasanen was “baseless.” In 2021, members of Congress asked the U.S. Commission on International Human Rights to sanction Finland over this case, and human rights advocates asked the U.S. Treasury secretary to sanction Finland for violating human rights with this prosecution.
President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance have also publicly rebuked Europe over its increasing speech repression, but those policies have not abated.
