A Finnish politician is under investigation for a ‘hate-crime’ by the police for a June Facebook post calling out the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland for their participation in Helsinki’s LGBT Pride activities, which included a Bible passage calling homosexuality ‘shameful’.
Ex-Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen wrote on Facebook: The Church of which I am a member has announced to be the official partner of the Helsinki Pride 2019. How does the church’s doctrine, the Bible, fit together with the cause where shame and sin are raised as a topic of pride? #Pride #Bible #Ev #Rom1:24-27
She included an image of Romans 1:24-27 in her post, which reads:
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error.
According to Fox News:
Her post made Räsänen the subject of a pretrial investigation by the Finnish Police for a suspected incitement against sexual and gender minorities.
“The pre-trial investigations have not yet been completed. Police will provide more details once the investigations have been completed or presented to a prosecutor for consideration of charges,” the Helsinki Police Department officer in charge of the investigation told the Helsinki Times.
Fox News reports that in August Räsänen, who is married to a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, suggested she wasn’t worried about herself, but rather that quoting the Bible would be considered illegal and that it might lead to self-censorship among Christians:
In mid-August, the Finnish politician tweeted: “I am not concerned on my part, as I trust this will not move on to the prosecutor. However, I am concerned if quoting the Bible is considered even ‘slightly’ illegal. I hope this won’t lead to self-censorship among Christians. Rom. 1:24–27.”
The notion that Räsänen is being investigated for this at all is entirely absurd and it just goes to show how evil and corrupt this world has become, such that homosexuality has become a protected class, even from Biblical criticism.
There should be more people like Päivi Räsänen in this world, willing to not only speak out against homosexuality, but against churches participating in this evil.
I do hope and pray, however, that Finland won’t prosecute her for this. But even if they don’t, the damage has already been done; free speech is dead in Finland. Finnish Christians who don’t want their fascist government investigating them will self-censor. And you can bet that LGBT activists will be on the lookout for Christians who don’t.