This case marks the third and highest level of court proceedings in Päivi Räsänen’s years-long legal battle. The Supreme Court’s involvement comes after she was unanimously acquitted —first by the Helsinki District Court in 2022 and then by the Court of Appeal in 2023.
As CBN News has followed, the case began in 2019 when Räsänen tweeted the text of Romans 1:24-27, which condemns homosexuality as sinful. At the time, she was alarmed over a decision by her denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, to support an LGBTQ Pride event, so she responded by sharing Scripture on her X account, sparking a criminal complaint.
Räsänen, Finland’s former Minister of the Interior, faces two criminal charges for expressing her deeply held biblical beliefs on marriage and sexuality – one charge for her tweet in 2019 and another for a 2004 pamphlet published by Bishop Juhana Pohjola.
