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Helsinki Court Dismisses All Charges Against Päivi Räsänen, Finnish MP Busted for Defending Christian Teaching on Family and Marriage…

“The purpose [of] my tweet was in no way to insult sexual minorities. My criticism was aimed at the leadership of the church,” she told the journal First Things.

Discussing the tweet in court, she underlined that it was directed at Church leaders and concerned an important topic facing the Church.

Police began investigating Räsänen in 2019. She faced several police interviews and had to wait more than a year for the Prosecutor General’s decision.

The International Lutheran Council described the decision to prosecute Räsänen and Pohjola as “egregious.”

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It said: “The vast majority of Christians in all nations, including Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, share these convictions. Would the Finnish Prosecutor General condemn us all? Moreover, shall the Finnish state risk governmental sanctions from other states based on the abuse of foundational human rights?”

Addressing the pamphlet, which described homosexuality as “a disorder of psycho-sexual development,” Räsänen told the court that she was asked to write a text outlining Lutheran teaching on sexuality for members of her church, from her viewpoint as a politician, doctor, and Christian.

She said that the pamphlet was outdated given changes in research and legislation since 2004. But she said that it should still exist as a document testifying to the discussions taking place at that time.

Crowds of supporters gathered outside the court during the trial. The American Pastor Andrew Brunson, who spent two years in detention in Turkey, flew to Finland to give Räsänen a prayer pledge of support signed by Christians worldwide, organized by the Family Research Council.

A group of U.S. senators wrote on Jan. 24 to Rashad Hussain, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, expressing concern at the trial.

“We are greatly concerned that the use of Finnish hate speech law is tantamount to a secular blasphemy law,” they said.

“It could open the door for prosecution of other devout Christians, Muslims, Jews and adherents of other faiths for publicly stating their religious beliefs.”

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The Christian legal group ADF International said that the prosecution argued in its closing statement that the word “sin” can be harmful.

“The Apostle Paul isn’t on trial here, but Räsänen is,” the prosecution reportedly said, calling for the defendants to be fined.

Räsänen’s defense argued that a guilty verdict would damage free speech in Finland. They suggested that that trial had become a theological debate on the question “what is sin?”, which they said was an inappropriate topic for a court.

The defense cited the 1976 Handyside v United Kingdom case by the European Court of Human Rights, which said that freedom of expression extended to ideas that “offend, shock or disturb the state or any sector of the population.”

Paul Coleman, ADF International’s executive director, who was present on the first day of the trial on Jan. 24, commented: “I would characterize the day as a modern-day Inquisition or heresy trial and the heresy was that Päivi and Bishop Juhana were on trial against the new sexual orthodoxy of the day.”

The state prosecutor has seven days to decide whether to lodge an appeal.

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