Six years ago, Päivi Räsänen wrote a tweet that changed the course of her life—and is still, to this day, challenging the definition of religious freedom in Europe.
Räsänen has been a member of parliament in Finland since 1995. She’s also a member of the nation’s Evangelical Lutheran Church—which in 2019 announced its official sponsorship of an LGBT Pride event. In response, she wrote: “How can the Church’s doctrinal foundation, the #Bible, be compatible with the lifting up of shame and sin as a subject of pride?” She posted this comment alongside a picture of the Bible verse Romans 1:27, which describes homosexuality as shameful: “Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.”
The next day, she opened her morning newspaper to find out that she was being investigated by police for hate speech.
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