A Finnish politician is under police investigation after posting a Bible verse on her Facebook page.
In June 2019, Christian Democratic MP Päivi Räsänen shared a section from Paul’s letter to the Romans along with criticism of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland over their decision to endorse Helsinki LGBT Pride 2019 event.
Finnish Police launched the investigation against Ms Räsänen on suspected incitement against sexual and gender minorities. It has also been reported that authorities have additionally charged Ms Räsänen with “agitation against an ethnic group.”
In an interview with Faith Wire, Ms Räsänen said, “Already the fact that a police investigation has been started and there is a suspect of a crime has a significant effect to freedom of speech and religion in practice.”
Ms Räsänen went on to say she fears the police investigation will have a chilling effect among Christians.
“It seems that many Christians in my country are now hiding and going to the closet now that the LGBT-community has come out to the public,” she said.
Ms Räsänen has urged Christians to obey God, rather than man, and trust that the Bible is God’s Word, “a solid foundation for the Gospel to bring forth new life and win hearts.”
Speaking with Faith Wire, Ms Räsänen said she doesn’t want to be defiant, but she intends on using her freedom of religion to speak accordingly and urged other believers to do likewise.
The passage shared by Ms Räsänen was Romans 1:24-27, which reads:
Therefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 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 themselves the due penalty for their error.
Last month Ms Räsänen 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.”
