LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 112

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I published a tweet, targeting the church leadership and asked:
“How can the church’s doctrine be compatible with an
ideology, which raises what Bible calls sin and shame as a
matter of pride?”
I accompanied my post with a photo of a Bible passage, from
the Book of Romans, chapter 1, verses 24–27, where the apostle
Paul teaches about same-sex relationships.
A citizen made a criminal complaint against me, and the police
started a criminal investigation about the tweet. When the
investigation came into public, there became more criminal
complaints. The second charge was about an old pamphlet I
had written already in 2004, “Male and Female He Made Them:
Homosexual relationships challenge the Christian concept of
humanity.” It takes a stand on sexuality and marriage from a
classical Christian perspective. Also, Bishop Pohjola was
prosecuted because he is responsible for publishing the
pamphlet. Earlier, the police released a decision that the
pamphlet based on the statements in the Bible gave no cause
for criminal investigation and noted: “If any of the viewpoints
contained in the Bible would be considered (sufficient to fulfil
the criteria for) the crime, then the distribution of the Bible or
rendering it available would be (considered a crime and thus)
punishable.” The third charge was about my views presented in
one radio interview, titled, “What would Jesus think about
homosexuality?”
In these two latter cases, the Prosecutor General ordered the
investigation against the police’s recommendation. The filing
of the charges was preceded by one and a half years of police
investigation and several long police interrogations, altogether
13 hours. The situation felt absurd, even unreal. Just few years
ago I was in charge of the police as a minister of the interior and
then I was sitting in the police station, being interrogated,
having the Bible on the table. The questions were mainly about
the Bible and its interpretation. I was asked, what is the
message of the Book of Romans and its first chapter. What do I
mean with the words sin and shame? In social media there was
a joke about me once again going to have a Bible study at the

police station. The police asked each time if I would agree,
within two weeks, to delete my writings. I answered no, and
that I stand behind these teachings of the Bible, whatever the
consequences are. I will not apologize for what the apostle Paul
has stated.
The possible sentence for the crime of ethnic agitation would
have been up to two years imprisonment or a fine. In the
Finnish law it falls within the “war crimes” section of the
criminal code. But even more dangerous is the possibility of
being censored: an order to remove social media updates or a
ban on posting. I think the prosecutor is using me as a warning
to others that they should not speak and express their
convictions freely.
Although the prosecutor at first assured that the trial would not
be an inquisition, she surprisingly targeted the core doctrine of
Christianity. She claimed that my views represent a doctrine,
which (she summarized as “love the sinner, hate the sin”). This
doctrine she regarded as insulting and defaming, because
according to her, you cannot make a distinction between the
person’s identity and his or her action. If you condemn the act,
you also condemn the human being and regard him or her as
inferior.
This is an egregious statement. It goes against the Christian
view of man and common sense. God has created all human
beings as His own image and we all have equal value, but we all
are also sinners. No one’s human dignity decreases because of
sin. God so loved all the people, that He gave His only Son to die
on the cross to suffer the punishment that belonged to us
because of our sins.
The thought that you could not make a distinction between the
person’s deeds and his or her identity or human dignity is
unfamiliar to life and to the rule of law. I answered in the court
that as I was raising my five children, I often had to blame some
of them for bad behavior, but it never diminished my love or
respect to any of them. And even the most notorious criminals
do not lose their human rights or human dignity if they get a
punishment for their deeds. Especially in court this principle
should be very clear.
The most stressful and difficult thing in this process have been
the prosecutor’s false accusations. The District Court made it
very clear they did not find any such statements in my
pamphlet or in the radio programs that the prosecutor had
argued me to have said, for example that some people would be
inferior compared to others.
I encountered this same kind of limited understanding of
religious freedom when I was the minister responsible for
church affairs and had a discussion with the Chinese minister
in charge of religious matters. He said that in China you can
believe in your own mind whatever, but it is necessary to
restrict the freedom to express your faith if it increases tensions
in the society.
In public, the prosecutor general has stated that “although
Räsänen was convicted, it does not mean that the Bibles should
be removed from the libraries. You can refer to the Bible, Koran,
or Mein Kampf, because it is not forbidden to discuss historical
texts. But what is essential is that do you agree with it.” This is
an absurd statement. It is essential for Christians to be able to
agree with the Bible.

112 | PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2023 (68TH) LCMS CONVENTION

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