{"id":1997406,"date":"2023-08-11T03:21:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-11T07:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/finnish-grandmother-is-back-in-court-facing-hate-speech-charges-for-tweeting-bible-verses\/"},"modified":"2023-08-11T03:24:37","modified_gmt":"2023-08-11T07:24:37","slug":"finnish-grandmother-is-back-in-court-facing-hate-speech-charges-for-tweeting-bible-verses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/finnish-grandmother-is-back-in-court-facing-hate-speech-charges-for-tweeting-bible-verses\/","title":{"rendered":"Finnish grandma faces court for tweeting Bible verses, accused of &#8216;hate speech&#8217;."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffinnish-grandmother-is-back-in-court-facing-hate-speech-charges-for-tweeting-bible-verses%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1997406&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<p><strong>In \u200c2019, P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen<\/strong> did what any one of us might\u2063 do \u2014 she tweeted at her \u2063church. Her tweet was simple \u2063and peaceful. She questioned the choice to sponsor a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-the-transgender-culture-war-leftists-fired-the-first-shot\/\" title=\"In The Transgender Culture War, Leftists Fired The First Shot\">local pride parade<\/a>. She questioned, was this befitting of their Christian \u200dfaith? And she attached a scripture\u2062 passage to the tweet.<\/p>\n<p><strong>R\u00e4s\u00e4nen will be\u2063 headed to court<\/strong> for \u200cthe second time on criminal charges of \u201chate speech.\u201d This \u200blongstanding member of the Finnish Parliament, medical \u200cdoctor,\u2063 and grandmother has faced onerous prosecution for four years at \u200dthe hands of Finland\u2019s government\u2062 for a tweet.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-794022320\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-07e43180a7feb2545964788e00760f9a fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-07e43180a7feb2545964788e00760f9a\"><\/div>\n<p>Subjected to 13 hours of police\u2064 interrogation, authorities dug into her past, charging her with three \u200bcounts of \u201cagitation against\u2064 a minority group\u201d for the\u200c tweet, in addition to a 2004 church pamphlet and 2019 radio appearance. Bishop Juhana Pohjola of Finland\u2019s \u200dEvangelical Lutheran Church also\u2062 was criminally charged for publishing the pamphlet, which discusses a Biblical-based\u2062 understanding of marriage and human sexuality. Their\u2062 charges carried with them\u2062 tens of\u200c thousands of euros in fines and\u200b even \u2062the possibility\u200d of a\u2064 two-year prison sentence.<\/p>\n<p>In\u200d March of last year, the\u200c Helsinki District Court delivered a unanimous\u2063 <a href=\"https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/finnish-mp-marks-court-victory-anniversary\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">acquittal<\/a>, stating clearly that, \u201cit is not for\u200c the district court to\u2064 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-joe-biden-made-christian-persecution-even-worse\/\" title=\"How Joe Biden Made Christian Persecution Even Worse\">interpret biblical concepts<\/a>.\u201d\u200b However, the law in Finland allows for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/finnish-grandmother-is-back-in-court-facing-hate-speech-charges-for-tweeting-bible-verses\/\" title=\"Finnish grandma faces court for tweeting Bible verses, accused of 'hate speech'.\">legal\u2062 double jeopardy \u2014 prosecutors<\/a> \u200dcan <a href=\"https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/paivi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">appeal<\/a> all the way to the Supreme Court on\u2063 the mere basis of dissatisfaction \u2064with the\u200c verdict. On Aug. 31, R\u00e4s\u00e4nen and the \u2062bishop will be back in court once again. Their legal defense is supported by ADF International.<\/p>\n<p>Without free speech, there can be no freedom, and the \u200denormous implications of this case for fundamental freedoms have triggered international outrage. Finland, regularly ranked as the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/04\/01\/world\/europe\/finland-happiness-optimism.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">happiest<\/a>\u201d country \u2064on Earth, is known as a stable bastion of European \u2064democracy.\u200c If this can happen there, then we must all beware.<\/p>\n<p>On Aug. 8, 16\u2064 U.S. members of Congress, sent a <a href=\"https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Signed_Finland_Letter_August_2023.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">letter<\/a> to \u200cRashad Hussain, U.S. ambassador\u2013at\u2013large\u200b for international religious freedom, and Douglas Hickey, U.S. ambassador to \u200cFinland, in response to R\u00e4s\u00e4nen\u2019s \u200b\u201cegregious and harassing\u201d prosecution. The letter highlights the severity of what\u2019s at stake: \u201cThis prosecutor is dead\u200c set \u2063on weaponizing the power of Finland\u2019s legal system to \u2064silence \u2062not just a member of parliament and\u200d Lutheran bishop but millions of Finnish Christians who dare to \u200cexercise their natural rights to freedom of expression and freedom of \u2062religion in the public square.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-8fe3e2e6aef0d129ef1b1da7204e4195 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-8fe3e2e6aef0d129ef1b1da7204e4195\"><\/div>\n<p>Free speech is a preeminent American value, but \u200dalso one well-protected in international law. The U.S. should always stand\u200b against the criminalization of peaceful expression and\u200b especially should raise concerns when violations of free speech occur in countries we view as allies, \u200bespecially on human rights. As the legislators\u2019 letter states,\u200b \u201cNo American, no Fin, and no \u200bhuman should <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/with-time-running-out-mike-lee-urges-colleagues-to-protect-religious-freedom\/\" title=\"With Time Running Out, Mike Lee Urges Colleagues To Protect Religious Freedom\">face legal harassment<\/a> for \u2064simply living out their religious beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now is the time for the Biden administration to speak out loud and \u2062clear. While\u2064 the administration has acknowledged that it has privately <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kennedy.senate.gov\/public\/_cache\/files\/0\/8\/08fa5bcd-f882-4c39-8a4a-05f429ac57a9\/2C3213698A470DB8AA401D77D33E1421.h20221228-005-kennedy.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">raised concerns<\/a> over R\u00e4s\u00e4nen\u2019s case with the Finnish\u2064 government, it is vitally\u2062 important that the U.S.\u2062 government take a public stance in defense of free speech \u2063so under threat in\u200c this case.<\/p>\n<p>With regard to R\u00e4s\u00e4nen\u2019s case, the legislators\u2019\u2063 letter makes \u200dclear, \u201cThe selective\u2063 targeting of these <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-epstein-madam-wouldnt-help-find-tapes-of-bill-clinton-because-it-would-hurt-hillarys-2016-run\/\" title=\"Report: Epstein Madam Wouldn\u2019t Help Find Tapes Of Bill Clinton Because It Would Hurt Hillary\u2019s 2016 Run\">high-profile individuals<\/a> is designed to systematically chill others\u2019 speech \u200bunder the threat \u2063of legal harassment and social astigmatism.\u201d Historically, the U.S. has been the \u2064strongest bulwark against international violations of freedom of speech. In standing up for R\u00e4s\u00e4nen, the U.S. government would in turn send \u200ca signal that it is standing up for the right of every person who\u200c feels the rapidly encroaching winds of censorship.<a id=\"_msocom_1\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-6910f5aab0357a53ce9e2eb15c3ac151 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-6910f5aab0357a53ce9e2eb15c3ac151\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2019, P\u00e4ivi R\u00e4s\u00e4nen tweeted her church, questioning their sponsorship of a local pride parade. She peacefully pondered if this aligned with their Christian faith, attaching a scripture passage. R\u00e4s\u00e4nen&#8217;s actions will have consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1555,"featured_media":1997407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1997406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1555"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1997406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1997407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1997406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1997406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1997406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}