A Finnish lawmaker cleared of "hate" speech charges for simply posting a statement from the Bible on social media says it's important that Christians speak out about their faith.
"I had a very strong feeling that, that this is my calling, this is my calling now to fight for this freedom of speech and freedom of faith, and and also to defend the teachings of the Bible in this kind of time, of course ," explained Paivi Rasanen in an interview with the Christian Institute.
WND reported several weeks ago when she was cleared, again, of "hate speech" claims that were brought against her by a state prosecutor after she posted a Bible verse on social media.
The decision comes from the Helsinki Court of Appeal, which dismissed the prosecutors' claims against Finnish Member of Parliament Räsänen and Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola, who published one of her commentaries.
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They were cleared earlier in a lower court, but the charges were brought against the two a second time at the appeals level.
The court ruled it "has no reason, on the basis of the evidence received at the main hearing, to assess the case in any respect differently from the district court. There is therefore no reason to alter the final result of the district court's judgment."
Päivi Räsänen (Facebook)
"At the heart of the prosecutor’s examination of Räsänen was this: Would she recant her beliefs? The answer was no – she would not deny the teachings of her faith," explained a lawyer on her team, Paul Coleman of ADF International.
"The cross-examination bore all the resemblance of a 'heresy' trial of the Middle Ages; it was implied that Räsänen had 'blasphemed' against the dominant orthodoxies of the day."
Rasenan said, "The more we are silent on these issues, the narrower becomes the space for our freedoms."
She confirmed there were "dark moments" for her during the persecution she endured.
"But I'm grateful to God that there have been so many who have prayed for me and I'm sure that God has answered these prayers."
She said her defense was that she would not "apologize what Apostle Paul has stated in in the Bible."
"I want to encourage Christians to use their rights now," she said.
She also noted that during the dispute, she had many opportunities to explain the gospel, in court, through the media and even to police.
"I have got so many messages from the people who have said that during this process they have started to read Bible, they have started to pray … [and] there have been also gay people who have told that they have found Christ when they have started to read Bible…"
She said when the dispute arose, over her church's support for a "Pride" event, she got a vision that it was not her time to abandon that institution.
"I thought that now it is my time to speak because I was worried that if the leadership of the church undermines people's trust on the Bible, what Bible teaches, it is not then only about gender or marriage but it is also about salvation of the people," she said.
She said the process was the punishment, largely, and, "I think that it has had a silencing effect to our society to Christians. There have been some young Christians that have written to me that they are afraid to express their faith but that they are also labeled to be hate speakers and this has been the problem during these four years."
Räsänen, a former interior minister for Finland and grandmother of 11, was charged with "agitation against a minority group" in 2021 under a section of Finland's statutes that concern "war crimes and crimes against humanity," the ADF said.
Her offense was her expression of her Christian beliefs on marriage and sexual ethics in a 2019 tweet, in addition to a 2019 live radio debate and 2004 church pamphlet.
https://www.wnd.com/2023/11/christian-cleared-bible-sharing-crime-urges-believers-1-thing/?
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