Finland: The Bible Acquitted

“Blessed is the man who endures trial,” writes  St. James (1:12, using a Greek term sometimes also translated as temptation or ordeal). Päivi Räsänen can consider herself doubly blessed since she was acquitted on November 14, 2023, at the conclusion of the appeal.

The Finnish MP's legal saga began on June 17, 2019 with a tweet criticizing – with verses from the Bible – the participation of her Protestant co-religionists in a gay pride event organized in Helsinki. She also included a photo of verses from her personal Bible. Her case came to be known as the “Bible Trial.”

A tweet which LGBT pressure groups were quick to seize on to settle the score with the Christian Democrat, long-time member of Eduskunta – the Finnish Parliament – and former Minister of the Interior.

“This trial is historic for freedom of expression and religion. For the first time in a criminal case, the court examined whether teachings linked to the Bible could be displayed and accepted,” commented the Christian woman after the verdict. Päivi Räsänen had to answer for the charge of “propagation of hate speech” under a provision of the penal code originally linked to war crimes.

During its first trial which was held in January 2022, the public prosecutor focused his accusation on a question of moral theology: is it really licit to separate the sin from the sinner and to condemn the first while loving the second? Enough to leave Rävi Räsänen stunned: “I couldn’t believe that I was sitting in a courtroom where the prosecution was arguing about the exegesis of certain verses of the Bible,” she confided.

The Appeal

Thanks to a quirk of the Finnish legal system, the prosecution was able to appeal the decision and obtain a new trial which was held last August. This time, the prosecution went even further, accusing the MP of having shared “a criminal interpretation of Holy Scripture” on social media.

Acting with caution, the magistrates of the Court of Appeals confirmed the judgment of the first instance, arguing on a lack of proof as to the intent to formally insult homosexuals.

Pävi Räsänen's victory is in any case a patch of blue sky in a heavy horizon for all those who, like St. John, think that only “the truth will set us free” (Jn. 8:32).