Former Interior Minister Dr. Paivi Rasanen posted the verse in 2019 on X, then Twitter, to call out her church's involvement in a Helsinki LGBTQ Pride event.
"[My church] has announced that it is #seta's #Pride2019 official partner. How does the doctrine of the church, [Holy Bible] agree with the fact that shame and sin are raised as a matter of pride?" She said, above a verse that read "The men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error."
She was investigated over this, as well as a booklet she made for her church back in 2004 that discussed "the Biblical view of homosexuality, marriage, and the family’s role in society," per The European Conservative.
Rasanen was tried in 2022 alongside Bishop Juhana Pohjola for "agitation against a minority group" and both were acquitted when a Helsinki court determined "it is not for the district court to interpret biblical concepts."
When the prosecution appealed the case to a higher court in November 2023, the pair were acquitted once again.
The prosecution accounted Friday that they will now appeal to the Supreme Court of Finland, something that "totally surprised" Rasanen.
"I am confident and calm. I am ready to continue to defend free speech and freedom of religion before the Supreme Court of Finland, and if need be, also before the European Court of Human Rights," she stated.
"This was not just about my opinions, but about everyone’s freedom of expression. I hope that with the ruling of the Supreme Court, others would not have to undergo the same ordeal. I have considered it a privilege and an honor to defend freedom of expression, which is a fundamental right in a democratic state."
The prosecution is reportedly asking for "tens of thousands in fines" as repercussion.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF International) announced they would be "standing by [Rasanen's] side" during this ensuing legal battle.
Its Executive Director Paul Coleman stated: "This is a watershed case in the story of Europe’s creeping censorship. In a democratic Western nation in 2024, nobody should be on trial for their faith—yet throughout the prosecution of Paivi Rasanen and Bishop Pohjola, we have seen something akin to a ‘heresy’ trial, where Christians are dragged through court for holding beliefs that differ from the approved orthodoxy of the day."
