Religious Freedom On Trial In Finland

By CHRISTOPHER MANION

On February 14, a court in Finland heard arguments in one of the most significant cases regarding human rights and religious freedom in recent years.
Member of Parliament and medical doctor Paivi Rasanen, and Bishop-Elect and Dean Juhana Pohjola, have been charged by Finland’s Prosecutor General with “hate crimes” for publicly expressing their Christian beliefs.
Eighteen years ago, Dr. Rasanen authored the booklet, Male and Female He Created Them: Homosexual Relationships Challenge the Christian Concept of Humanity.
Rasanen’s text recounts the Christian understanding of marriage, the path of her own conversion, and the history of the Finnish Parliament’s legalization of homosexual partnerships which, she argues, led in practice to the legalization of same-sex marriage.
The text provides an able and often impressive description of the “cultural revolution” in Finland and other Scandinavian countries, as well as the legal consequences that followed. She specifically argues that the legislation was used by radicals in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland to abandon the biblical notion of marriage and allow the blessing of homosexual marriages, an issue which has riven the Catholic Church, primarily in Germany but also in the rest of Europe as well as the United States.
In sum, the work is little short of stunning in its clarity, brevity, and logic. Clearly, if this book is condemned as criminal, and its author and publisher are sentenced to prison as a consequence, it augurs a traumatic and convulsive future not only in Finland, but the entire West.
But the Finnish Prosecutor General thinks otherwise. When Dr. Rasanen tweeted a picture of a Bible verse at Finland’s state church to criticize its co-sponsorship of a homosexual parade in 2019, he began his investigation. Since Dean Pohjola is editor-in-chief of Luther Foundation Finland’s publications — including the booklet — he also was charged in the indictment.
When the prosecution began, the International Lutheran Council (ILC) objected, insisting that the booklet merely upheld historic Christian teachings on human sexuality. It supported Dean Pohjola’s claim that “the police have already thoroughly investigated and concluded that this is not a criminal offense. It is our job to teach the entire Word of the Bible in peace, including on marriage as created by God.”
According to The Federalist’s Joy Pullman, who has been closely following the case, Dr. Rasanen has been a model of composure during her ordeal. After the first day of her trial last month, Rasanen told Pullman that “when so many people were praying for the day, God also answered the prayers. It was quite a hard day, but I thought it was a privilege to stand for the freedom of speech and the freedom of religion and stand for the truth of the Bible.”
“As a Christian, I do not want to and cannot discriminate against or despise anyone created by God,” Dean Pohjola said when he was charged. “Every human being, created by God and redeemed by Christ, is equally precious. At the same time,” he continued, “this does not remove the fact that, according to the Bible and the Christian conception of man, homosexual relations are against the will of God, and marriage is intended only between a man and a woman. This is what the Christian church has always taught and will always teach.”
“Recent actions in Finland have created an international scandal which continues to grow,” said Rev. Dr. Timothy Quill, general secretary of the ILC. “The implications of the decision to charge Juhana Pohjola and Paivi Rasanen are clear: If the authorities are willing to do this to a respected pastor, reverend doctor, and Bishop Elect, as well as a Member of Parliament and former Minister of the Interior, then that sends a message of fear and intimidation to everyone in Finland who follows the Scripture’s teaching on human sexuality.”
Human rights lawyer Paul Coleman of the Alliance Defending Freedom International is assisting on the case. Last November he told The Federalist’s Joy Pullman that these cases were a “canary in the coal mine” for freedom of speech throughout the Western world.
For Coleman, this case could be a watershed for the persecution of Christianity in the West, due to its distinctly theological nature and how far it has stretched the interpretation of hate crimes laws that now exist in most Western countries.
“I would characterize the day as a modern-day Inquisition or heresy trial,” Coleman said in Helsinki last month after the trial’s first day. “And the heresy was that Paivi and Bishop Juhana were on trial against the new sexual orthodoxy of the day.”
The court will issue its verdict within the next month. If convicted, Rasanen and Pohjola face fines or up to two years in prison.

Leftovers

Canada’s Prime Minister Trudeau, frustrated by the overwhelming support for the Canadian truckers’ massive “Freedom Convoy,” has for the first time in the country’s history invoked the “Emergencies Act.” Rather than initiating discussions or making overtures to the convoy’s leaders or their supporters, he and his government have twice frozen millions of dollars donated by trucker supporters worldwide, as well as threatened to expropriate the trucks in the convoy as well as tow trucks whose operators refuse the government’s demands to remove the trucks participating in the demonstrations.
Canadian authorities have much greater police powers than those allowed by the U.S. Constitution. We recall that our own Professor Charles Rice was threatened with jail when he spoke at a Canadian university several years ago. His potential crime? Condemning sodomy. Escorted by a large police contingent to the appearance, he was aggressively pressed by the media for his opinion.
“I believe in the teaching of the Catholic Church,” he replied repeatedly. He was not arrested.
Since then, Canada has gone further off the rails, especially due to the government’s response to the virus (the truckers’ main complaint addresses the regime’s oppressive vaccination requirements).
Trudeau’s intransigence, and the truckers’ resilient resistance, have brought the country to the edge of a potentially explosive crisis.
Two weeks before the 2020 election, Attorney General Bob Barr appointed Special Counsel John Durham to investigate the origins of the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe. Durham’s work has been far different from that of Robert Mueller. Mueller’s team leaked profusely, every leak serving a political purpose. His crew abused the FBI, sending NKVD-style goon squads to family homes in the dead of night, with television crews — advised ahead of time (by leaks, of course) — ready to film it all. And Mueller found no proof of the “Russia Collusion” hoax, ending his career with a dementia-laden afternoon of testimony before Congress.
Now Durham has indicted Michael A. Sussmann, Hillary Clinton’s campaign lawyer, for his part in what the indictment describes as a “a scandal much deeper than merely Sussmann’s role in a second Russian hoax — a scandal that entangles the Clinton campaign, multiple Internet companies, two federally funded university researchers, and a complicit media,” according to Margot Cleveland, longtime Notre Dame Law prof and federal appeals court clerk who is following the investigation for The Federalist.
The investigation’s technical aspects are detailed, but the reaction of the Left has been hilariously predictable. “Everybody does it,” one journalism prof — a longtime Trump opponent — roars. “But what about Trump’s New York accountant,” a Boston College history prof pouts. And the fake news media have simply refused to report on Durham at all.
For years, the Clinton team’s response to all this had been “Deny!” But now, as the Deep State cabal scrambles for cover, deflection is the rule.
Durham has more in store. Stay tuned.