In 2004, Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola, along with a member of the Finnish Parlament, Paivi Rasanen, wrote a booklet together defining marriage as between one man and one woman. Then, in 2019, Rasanen posted a criticism of the Finnish Lutheran Church on Twitter for their association with a Gay Pride event. Bishop Pohjola went on to post that Tweet on the website of the Luther Foundation of Finland.
For doing that, Bishop Pohjola and Rasanen were charged by the Finnish government with incitement to hatred. Prosecutors were asking that they be fined 13,000 Euros (about $14,500.00 US). The prosecutors say that Rasanen’s remarks were an “affront to the equality and dignity of homosexuals.”
For a little more context, Rasanen was a doctor by profession, and served as Finland’s interior minister from 2011 to 2015. She also served during that time as the charwoman of the Christian Democrats party.
Their case went to trial this past January, and the prosecutor began by trying to convince the court that the case was not about beliefs and the Bible, but about discrimination, and called the teachings of the Bible hate speech. (Click here to continue reading.)