Tipsheet

Finnish Politician Accused Of 'Hate Crime' For Sharing Bible Verse On Facebook

Timothy Meads
Timothy Meads  |  September 05, 2019 10:45 AM

Fox News reports that Finnish police are investigating a politician for sharing a Bible verse on her Facebook page in response to a national church engaging in an LGBT pride event in June. 

Ex-Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen, a Christian Democrat MP, shared a picture of Romans 1:24-27 after the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland participated in a Gay Pride event this past summer, according to Caleb Parke. 

The verse in question addresses homosexuality:

 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Because of this, "her post made Räsänen the subject of a pretrial investigation by the Finnish Police for a suspected incitement against sexual and gender minorities." 

Räsänen stated in August, "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."

Recommended

NYPD Patrol Chief Has Best Response to City Official Upset Over Crackdown on Pro-Hamas Protests Mia Cathell
Can the Current Universities Be Saved? Victor Davis Hanson

Finnish police confirmed to local media that "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." 

Increasingly, it seems as if the rights to freedom of religion and freedom of speech around the world are being trampled upon in the name of tolerance. As Mike Gonzalez of the Heritage Foundation pondered, "Is this the future we want?"