Member of Parliament Päivi Räsänen will have her case heard by the highest court in Finland after two lower courts acquitted her of the charges of “hate speech.” Räsänen, a devout Lutheran, is well known to the Missouri Synod and politically well connected. She had served Finland’s interior minister and has been a parliamentarian since 1995 and is currently a Member of Parliament.
Tweeting Bible verses and speaking in a public debate from a Christian perspective have become "hate speech" in Europe today and it shows how intolerant the tolerant really are. Though Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola, who published the pamphlet in 2004, and Räsänen have been acquitted twice, the secular woke world has continued to appeal the case all the way up to Finland's Supreme Court.
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In some quarters of US activist law, there are proponents of applying standards of “hate speech” here as well.
In their daily prayers Lutherans should include this paraphrase of Martin Luther's imprecatory prayer:
We pray that Finland's prosecutor-general Raija Toiviainen be converted and cease the persecution and prosecution of Dr. Päivi Räsänen and her Christian teaching, and if not, that the doing and designing of Raija Toiviainen and Finnish Supreme Court officials supporting Toiviainen's efforts be bound to fail and have no success and that Toiviainen and those officials perish rather than the Gospel and the kingdom of Christ.
So we, too, pray for our angry enemy, not that God protect and strengthen the Finland prosecutor-general Raija Toiviainen in her ways, as we pray for Christians, or that He help her, but that she be converted, if she can be; or, if she refuses, that God oppose her, stop her and end the game to her harm and misfortune.
The thought for each of us to consider is that we cannot take it for granted that freedom from persecution, freedom of speech and association, and viewpoint expression are guaranteed, even with the foundation of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Communist countries, as well as Western democracies, have Constitutions as well, but they are treated as mere words on paper without substance. Oppressive regimes have existed throughout history. People are persecuted, imprisoned, falsely charged, even executed….not for entirely for their actions, often just for their words, views, and opinions. Should the intolerant, godless, and oppressive Left assume power in the courts and institutions of America, without resistance, the same agenda one sees in Europe and Canada would be implemented here, of this one can be sure. Elections matter, and participation and the duties of good citizenship are important, even though our system is imperfect. Should we fail to be steadfast, the situation in Finland will find fertile soil here as well. Soli Deo Gloria
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