As do many governments, Finland claims to guarantee freedom of speech and religion. But the recent decision of the Finnish Supreme Court to convict Dr. Päivi Räsänen and Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola of “hate speech” calls into question the meaning of such traditional freedoms in the West…Räsänen authored a booklet in 2004 on the Bible’s teachings regarding sexuality, including a section on homosexuality…Dr. Räsänen was charged with tweeting a Bible verse in response to the liberal state church’s sponsorship of an LGBTQ parade and for taking part in a debate on the subject in 2019.

In the Winter War of 1939-40—during the interlude between Hitler and Stalin’s carving up of Poland between them in the fall of 1939 and Hitler’s 1940 invasions—the brave Finns, led by Field Marshal Mannerheim, held off an unprovoked attack from the Soviet Union. Although Russia’s numbers eventually wore down the heavily outnumbered Finns who settled for peace on unfavorable terms, in the opening two months they achieved stunning, overwhelming victories against the unprepared Russians. News from the Finnish front captured the world’s attention and was the cause célèbre of the day. On January 20, 1940, Churchill, four months away from becoming prime minister, stated in a broadcast:

Only Finland—superb, nay, sublime—sublime in the jaws of peril—Finland shows what free men can do. The service rendered by Finland to mankind is magnificent. . . . If the light of freedom which still burns so brightly in the frozen North should be finally quenched, it might well herald a return to the Dark Ages.[1]

Nine decades later, Christians and all who value Western Civilization—including the freedom of religion—should take warning that Churchill’s “return to the Dark Ages”—while perhaps not on the West’s doorstep—is within sight.

How ironic that the nation whose valor inspired Western democracies early in the Second World War is the very one that today has again captured widespread attention, but for a completely opposite reason—the fraudulence, illogic, and cowardice of some who purport to uphold the rule of law in Finland (a highly capable NATO ally, by the way).

As do many governments, Finland claims to guarantee freedom of speech and religion. But the recent decision of the Finnish Supreme Court to convict Dr. Päivi Räsänen and Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola of “hate speech” calls into question the meaning of such traditional freedoms in the West. A physician, Finland’s former Minister of the Interior, and a Member of Parliament, Räsänen authored a booklet in 2004 on the Bible’s teachings regarding sexuality, including a section on homosexuality. The booklet was published by Bishop Pohjola’s church. Further, Dr. Räsänen was charged with tweeting a Bible verse in response to the liberal state church’s sponsorship of an LGBTQ parade and for taking part in a debate on the subject in 2019.

While the Supreme Court acquitted Räsänen for the 2019 tweet, it convicted her and Bishop Pohjola for “hate speech” under the “war crimes and crimes against humanity” section of Finland’s criminal code for the 2004 booklet. The insanity of the court’s decision—matched by its own crime against humanity in denying a Finnish citizen’s freedom of expression and liberty of conscience—is on full display when one notes the fact that Finland did not legalize so-called “gay marriage” until 2017, more than a decade after the booklet’s publication. Apparently a writer is expected to predict the future!

As has often been said, you cannot make this stuff up. Yet for Christians such decisions must be contended against in God-honoring ways and with Christ-like attitudes. Dr. Räsänen and Bishop Pohjola’s personal examples have been both gracious and above reproach.

The Rev. Dr. Pohjola is quoted as saying, “As a Christian, I do not want to and cannot discriminate against or despise anyone created by God.” He adds 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.”[2]

The two have on multiple occasions “publicly affirmed that they are not motivated by hate, but by love in stating the historic, orthodox Christian faith.” Räsänen has spoken to reporters with faithfulness and winsomeness: “The saving gospel of Jesus Christ has been given to us in the Bible. . . . The cross of Christ shows the greatest love for both heterosexuals and homosexuals.”[3]

In scenes reminiscent of the Book of Acts with the Apostle Paul before Felix and Agrippa, the lead Finnish prosecutor actually read out Old Testament verses, quoting them to the court. When prosecutors then proceeded to question Bishop Pohjola and Dr. Räsänen concerning their beliefs, the two had the opportunity to proclaim the gospel in the courtroom.

Sadly, today Finland is among those Western nations in which the few morally courageous stand in contrast to the cowardly majority that embrace—a few knowingly but most of the rest unwittingly—the atheistic, neo Marxist-based Diversity and Cancel-Culture ideology.

In 1978 at Harvard, Solzhenitsyn—the famed dissident of the Finns’ former antagonists—observed that the West had “lost its civic courage.” Today, few if any informed individuals will disagree. Neither should they hesitate to draw a moral link from Mannerheim’s unflinching soldiers of the Winter War to two worthy compatriot successors, Dr. Räsänen and Bishop Pohjola.

But an even more important connection is suggested here, in Acts 4:18-20:

And when [the rulers and elders] had summoned them, they commanded [Peter and John] not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, ‘Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard.’

Forrest L. Marion is a ruling elder in the First Presbyterian Church (PCA), Crossville, Tennessee.

[1] Robert Edwards, The Winter War: Russia’s Invasion of Finland, 1939-40 (New York: Pegasus Books, 2008), 223 (Churchill quoted by Edwards).

[2] Mathew Block, “Finnish Bishop Elect charged over historic Christian teachings on human sexuality,” ilc-online.org [International Lutheran Council]), Apr. 30, 2021.

[3] For more, see Gene Veith, “Finland Explicitly Puts the Bible on Trial,” patheos.com, Jan. 26, 2022; Joy Pullmann, “In Case With Global Implications, Finland Puts Christians On Trial For Their Faith,” thefederalist.com, Nov. 23, 2021.