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American legislators support Räsänen
A letter supporting Räsänen’s and all Christians’ right to free speech was signed by fifteen American congressmen on August 8th, with Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy leading the group.
Biden’s U.S. ambassador at large for international religious freedom, Rashad Hussain, and Douglas Hickey, the U.S. ambassador to Finland, respectively, were the recipients of the stern letter.
greater in Europe
The prosecutor “is dead set on weaponizing the power of Finland’s legal system to silence millions of Finnish Christians who dare to exercise their natural rights to freedom of expression and freedom of religion in the public square,” the letter claimed. It also mentioned a member of parliament and a Lutheran bishop.
The MPs added that the Räsänen case is more important for all Christians in the West as a whole.
The lawmakers claimed in their letter that “the selective targeting of these high-profile individuals is designed to systematically chill others’ speech under the threat of legal harassment and social stigmatization.” They added that “history will remember this case for either stopping the madness or as the beginning of the end as the West declares open war on Christianity.”
Roy stated in a tweet on Tuesday that “no American, no Finn, and no human should face legal harassment for simply living out their religious beliefs.”
Republicans made up the entire group of 15 House of Representatives signatories.
“Christian teachings are under scrutiny”
The ADF told the media on Tuesday that “Christian teachings [are] on trial” in Finland.
(The story is extended below.)
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Early in 2022, the district trial, according to ADF, challenged “core Christian teachings,” and a conviction for Räsänen “would be a grave violation of human rights, seriously impairing free speech in Finland.”
It is not just Päivi and Bishop Pohjola who are being put on trial, according to Tony Perkins, head of one of the nation’s top religious advocacy organizations, Family Research Council, who added in a tweet on Tuesday that “the Bible and the capacity to live by the word is on trial.”
It’s time to offer Päivi Räsänen another prayer.
Päivi will stand trial this week at the Finnish Court of Appeal following a 2022 trial that ended in a unanimous acquittal. No one should be subject to criminal “hate speech” charges for merely tweeting a scripture from the Bible. Bishop Pohjola and Päivi are not the only ones on. pic.twitter.com/VWf7iw4hAK
30 August 2023, Tony Perkins (@tperkins)
Räsänen asserted in an interview with “EWTN News Nightly” on Monday that her trial directly attacks Christians’ freedom to express their ardent religious convictions and that “if something like that could happen in Finland, it can happen in any country.”