Finnish politician Päivi Räsänen is on trial this week for “hate speech” and “ethnic agitation” [1] after publicly sharing in 2019 her traditional views on sex and marriage.
In a 2019 tweet that brought about Räsänen’s current legal troubles, she criticised her Lutheran Church for embracing LGBTQ+ ideology, asking how these views could be reconciled with Scripture. In the tweet, she referenced Romans 1:24-27, which states that sexual activity with a member of the same sex is against God’s will.
Along with Räsänen, a Finnish Lutheran bishop named Juhana Pohjola is also being tried for hate speech for publishing a pamphlet written by Räsänen that advocated for the biblical understanding of sexuality and marriage.
Though they were unanimously acquitted by a Finnish District Court in 2022, prosecutors appealed their acquittal to the Helsinki Court of Appeal.