Australia’s Largest Christian News Site

In a sign of the continuing breakdown of religious freedom in Europe, Finnish parliament member Päivi Räsänen was banned by the U.K. from traveling to Heathrow Airport for a planned layover due to her Finnish Supreme Court conviction in March for authoring a pamphlet containing supposed “hate speech” toward those who identify as LGBT.

Räsänen’s legal saga began in 2019, when she wrote a post on social media questioning why her Finnish Lutheran Church was choosing to participate in an LGBT Pride event, citing the scriptural prohibition against same-sex conduct from Romans 1:24–27.

Finnish authorities eventually charged her and Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola with “hate speech” for authoring a pamphlet advocating for a biblical view of sexuality and for the social media post.

Räsänen’s ‘Not Serious’ ‘Hate Speech’ Crime

Even after Räsänen and Pohjola’s eventual unanimous acquittal of the charges by two lower courts in 2023, prosecutors continued to press the case by appealing it.

In March of this year, a narrow 3-2 Finland Supreme Court decision found Räsänen and Pohjola guilty of “hate speech” for authoring the pamphlet and sentenced them to pay a €1,800 fine.

The decision also ordered that the pamphlet be removed from public access and that all physical copies be destroyed. She was not found guilty for two other charges based on the social media post and a radio debate.

Notably, the court admitted in its ruling that Räsänen and Pohjola’s conduct was not “serious.” “[I]t must be taken into account that the text forming the basis for the conviction did not contain incitement to violence or comparable threat-like fomenting of hatred,” the court wrote. “The conduct is therefore not particularly serious in terms of the nature of the offence.”

Nevertheless, Räsänen recently revealed that because of this single “not particularly serious” charge, the U.K. has rejected her Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) merely to pass through the country via Heathrow Airport (after initially approving it) while traveling from the U.S. to Helsinki, Finland’s capital. Räsänen further revealed that the U.K.’s revocation of her ETA could imperil her plans to attend an upcoming conference and speaking engagement in Northern Ireland next month about — ironically — freedom of speech.

Experts like author and columnist Rod Dreher say that the decision of a Western nation like the U.K. to bar Räsänen from stepping foot in the country because of perceived “hate speech” is a sign that Europe is rapidly sliding toward totalitarianism.

“Now that I hear someone as innocent and gentle as this Finnish granny has been forbidden by the British government even for setting foot in their international airport … well, it confirms my suspicions,” he posted last week on his Substack page.

Christian Decline Leading to Societal Decay

Dreher went on to note how the European Parliament is currently considering a measure that would “enable monitoring of people’s private, encrypted chats” to find any hint of perceived “hate speech” and further erode the ability of Europeans to freely express their religious beliefs.

“I think Päivi is a canary in the civilisational coal mine,” Dreher added. “The progressive bureaucratic order in European countries would rather attack faithful Christians as Enemies Of Society than deal with the actual problems they have. We can expect more of this. It’s a Finnish Lutheran lawmaker and grandmother today; it could easily be you tomorrow.”

European free speech advocates like Peter McIlvenna agree, noting that the U.K. barring Räsänen from entering is just the latest in a recent string of travel bans.

“We had a similar situation a couple of months ago whenever we had a United Kingdom rally organised by Tommy Robinson, and the U.K. government blocked 11 individuals who were traveling from Europe, I think, including Ezra Levant [who] was from Canada,” he pointed out during “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” Tuesday.

“They were given this statement, ‘Your presence is not conducive to the common good and therefore you are being blocked for entering.’ Of course, any government can have that ability to stop people coming in. I wish they used it to stop illegal immigrants coming in, but hey, they’re using it for members of Parliament. … [Räsänen] has been a member of [Finland’s] Parliament there for decades and decades.”

McIlvenna, the co-founder of Hearts of Oak, a U.K.-based free speech alliance, went on to describe the extent of the free speech violations that are occurring in his country.

“[T]o think that [Räsänen] is a danger in the U.K. is utter, utter madness,” he lamented. “But that’s where we’re going.”

“… [The government] arrests people for statements online. We have 30 arrests a day for people saying things online that the government does not like… and that fits into our hate crimes.

“Anything you say that may be perceived as offensive to someone else, then you’ve committed an offence. So it’s where we are.”

“[Europe is] very dark place now,” McIlvenna added. “Finland is a very secular country.”

“Scandinavia and Britain have always prided themselves on our Christian heritage or tradition — 1,700 years of that Christian thread that is very quickly disappearing with an apostate church and very few Christians involved in public office.

“So that is where we are going, far away from our traditional Christian faith.”

Unexpected Blessings

Still, Räsänen sees a thread of hope within the persecution that she has faced, recently describing how it has opened up opportunities for her to share her faith.

She recalled that after her “hate speech” case became public in 2019, a young man who identified as an atheist sent her an angry message. After she replied in kindness and shared the gospel with him, she described that he later reached out to her again.

“He said that after his conversation with me, he has found Christ, and he has found a way to eternal life,” Räsänen remembered.

“I understood that this is not in vain. It is not in vain to defend these freedoms. It is not in vain to share the message of the Bible.”

___

Republished with thanks to The Washington Stand.