Päivi Räsänen is a Finnish politician and is married to a Lutheran pastor, with whom she has five children and ten grandchildren. She is a physician by education and holds a Licentiate of Medicine. Räsänen entered politics in the early 1990s and was elected to the Finnish Parliament in 1995. She was the chairwoman of the Christian Democrats from 2004 to 2015 and Minister of the Interior of Finland between 2011 and 2015. Räsänen has conservative views on homosexuality, abortion, and migration. In 2019 she was investigated for incitement after criticizing her own church’s official participation in LGBT Pride events. During the proceedings, she was acquitted twice, and her trial before the Supreme Court will probably end next spring.
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You have been facing criminal charges in Finland for quoting a Bible verse on homosexuality. It’s fascinating because you are a former minister, and Finland is a liberal democracy at the heart of the EU. How did this trial begin, and what was the cause of it?
This legal case started over six years ago when the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church decided to support the Helsinki Pride event. It was a shock to me and also to many others, and that’s why I was considering resigning from the church. But then I thought that it was not my time to leave the church but to try to influence, so I took a quote from the Bible where Apostle Paul teaches about these issues about marriage and gender and sexuality, and directed a question to the leadership of the church: How does your support for the Pride fit to the foundation of the church, the Bible? So it was about the concern of my church that it would undermine people’s trust in the Bible, which is the word of God.
Were you surprised at what followed?
It was really a surprise. I would never have believed that something like that happens in Finland, because what I have said and what I have quoted was classical Christianity. It is what Christians have been teaching for hundreds of years, and it is not hate speech. I have not insulted or defamed anyone. I have just lifted up what the Bible says about these issues.
The exact term of the Bible you quoted is sin. There is a thin line between hate speech and the free speech of a Christian who calls homosexuality a sin.
Yes.
‘It is what Christians have been teaching for hundreds of years, and it is not hate speech. I have not insulted or defamed anyone’
In a liberal democracy, a Christian should be free to agree with God in the Bible, right? And yet, if you agree, then you will face trial.
Yes, this is the core of the accusations of the Prosecutor General that if you say that homosexual relationships are sinful, it is hate speech. If you say so, you think that these people are inferior to other people. I have written in my booklet and told in front of the police and in court that I absolutely believe that all people are equal. We are all created in the image of God, but we are all sinners, and when we speak about sin, it is something between God and man, and it is a theological concept. A secular court should not decide about sin and its theological interpretations.
Your intention was not to incite against a minority group, I guess.
No. But I’m accused of breaking the law with agitation against minorities. It is under the title of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and that’s why it is the Prosecutor General who is prosecuting this case. So it is a serious crime under our law, which can lead to up to two years in prison or heavy fines.
You were acquitted twice. If the Supreme Court finds you guilty, then somehow the court will judge God, too. I mean, the word ‘sin’ would be charged, and God cannot be in the court. Or can He?
In fact, even the secular media, our public broadcasting company, made a title that the Bible is on trial. So it is not about my views, it is about the Bible. And when the police investigated my pamphlet and my Twitter post, I had only written that ‘male and female, He created them’, and the police themselves said that if my writings were to be banned, then also the Bible should be banned in Finland. So the core question is this: Is it allowed for Christians to agree with the Bible publicly on these contradictory issues?
The Finnish state and judiciary work well, so my question is: what is the status of free speech and religious freedom in Finland? Are they in trouble in general, or is your case just a little exception here?
We have freedom of speech; it’s written in our Constitution, and we have also joined international treaties on these liberties, including freedom of speech and freedom of faith. But also, recently we have seen more and more cases in Finland where they try to cancel or ban Christians expressing their views.
‘The police themselves said that if my writings were to be banned, then also the Bible should be banned in Finland’
This new ideology, the gender ideology, and the LGBT advocates—they are quite active in trying to gain power by attempting to cancel and ban Christian views.
Are there any new laws passed in the parliament through this lobbying force?
In the European Union, there are proposals to impose more limitations on freedom of speech. We have had this law about agitation against minorities since 1992, and it was modified in 2010 when online crimes and crimes against sexual minorities were added to the list. I was also in the Parliament; the law was approved unanimously. I could have never imagined that it would be weaponized against Christians for expressing their beliefs. And the most dangerous consequence of my possible conviction would be censorship, because I’m not the only one who has written or spoken about this issue: if I get convicted, then the authors of many similar writings would be in danger.
Some call it a ‘secular blasphemy law’, which means that Christians, Muslims, Jews and other religious people could be cornered because of their religious views. So an atheist can say: ‘God doesn’t exist’, but a Christian can’t call homosexuality a sin.
Yes, we are in that kind of danger, and that’s why it would be important for all people, not only for Christians, but also for atheists and people from other faiths, that we insist on having freedom of speech, and perhaps it would be high time also to make better laws. We should be very careful in limiting freedom of speech, because someday it could turn against anyone, depending on who is in power.
Some members of your church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Finland, and some church leaders also criticized your views. The church is divided. Are the churches in good shape in Finland?
The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church, which is the majority church in Finland, with over 60 per cent of people belonging to it, is in crisis. It is very divided. I would say that the leadership of the church, the bishops, are very liberal and progressive. They, for example, promote same sex marriages. There are many pastors who marry same sex couples, even though, officially, the church doesn’t approve of these marriages. According to our Church Act, marriage is only for one man and one woman. But we also have many conservative Christians, Bible-believing Christians, and organizations, and I have got huge support from them.
On homosexuality. Critics say we can’t find exact sayings of Jesus about same sex relationships in the New Testament. What is your answer to this criticism?
I would say that the Bible, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, is very clear about the fact that marriage is between a man and a woman, and that same sex relationships are—it’s clearly said—sinful and shameful. Also, Jesus said that marriage was between one man and one woman. And what the Bible says, it is what Jesus says, because He is the Lord of the whole Bible. But of course, God has created all people in his own image, and homosexual people are equal in their value, as well as all people.
You are anti-abortion, and I would be very interested to know how the public sentiment is about abortion in Finland. Is yours a minority or a majority view?
I’m so sorry, but it is a minority view in Finland. We have a very liberal abortion law in Finland, and we have too many abortions.
‘God has created all people in his own image, and homosexual people are equal in their value, as well as all people’
I have tried, for example, to widen doctors’ freedom of conscience, because we don’t have it in our law that you can refuse to do abortions if you are working in that kind of institution as a doctor.
My last question is about migration. When you were a Minister, you claimed that the Finnish asylum system should favour Christians over Muslims, and there was some public controversy about it. Can you explain what the consideration behind this logic was?
Yes. We have had this experience in Finland that those asylum seekers and refugees who had a Christian background or who were persecuted for their Christian views can very easily be integrated into Finnish society, because they easily make friends in different parishes and churches. But, in fact, I have to say that we have many more difficulties with some other groups, for example, with Muslims who come from Somalia; it has been very difficult for them to integrate into Finnish society. So, of course, we have to take in these asylum seekers who come to our borders, whatever beliefs they have, but when we think about those refugees who are in camps, and we can select, then it would be good for them to have better possibilities to integrate into Finnish society.
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