Thursday, March 28, 2024
European UnionWorld

The most shameful trial in Europe. What can we learn from the case of Päivi Räsänen?

Former Minister of the Interior, who is accused of crimes against humanity not by just any madmen or trolls – these days, anyone can be accused of anything – but by the prosecutor general, and the case is being decided by a court – it should be a treat for journalists.

Paweł Lisicki

For a few days, or more precisely from January 24th, 2022, when the trial against Päivi Räsänen began in Finland, I have been systematically looking at large websites and browsing information in the largest media, yes, the same ones that declare the defense of freedom of speech on a daily basis and claim to be supporters of a debate. Nothing and nothing and nothing again. So quiet you could hear a pin drop. And yet in this case the whole world should roar and cry out. Ms Räsänen is a former Minister of the Interior (for five years!) And now a parliamentarian in Finland (since 1995!). So, as it is easy to see, she is a public figure and the fact that she’s been charged should come as a shock. Even more so if you are aware of what charges have been brought against her.

The prosecutor general of Finland established that she had committed a crime classified under the categories of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Finnish Criminal Code. Sounds serious, doesn’t it? Former Minister of the Interior, who is accused of crimes against humanity not by just any madmen or trolls – these days, anyone can be accused of anything – but by the prosecutor general, and the case is being decided by a court – it should be a treat for journalists. And there’s complete silence. Now the clou: the crime against humanity is that Ms. Räsänen quoted from the Holy Scriptures three times (in a newspaper interview, on Twitter and in a leaflet). Not such ordinary fragments, however, but specific and unbearable for today’s liberal audience (which evidently explains the media silence): namely that God created a man and a woman, and that homosexuality is a sin against nature. The former minister also criticized her Lutheran community for subsidizing the LGBT lobby. To make matters worse, the leader of the Lutheran community in Finland, Juhan Pohjola, was on the bench accused of spreading hatred, because he was the publisher of the pamphlet entitled “Man and woman He created them”, written by Päivi Räsänen.

Unbelievable? But yes, this is exactly the rainbow despotism that is raging more and more in Western Europe and which local LGBT ideologues are trying to import to Poland. Quoting the Bible as a crime against humanity? That’s what enlightenment is about now. For the apostle, the universality of homosexuality in the pagan world was the most eloquent sign of a fall, an attack on the life given by God: “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. […] Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way 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” (Romans 1:24-27).

Today, if you repeat these words, you can be brought to trial and face persecution. In this respect, the modern liberal state increasingly resembles the ancient empire as far as its attitude towards Christians is concerned. While in the first centuries after Christ, Christians could ensure their peace by paying homage to the emperor as god, in the 21st century they must renounce St. Paul and recognize homosexuality as a morally correct orientation. And that’s all. Just that. You just need to approve it.

The fact that these are the expectations of an increasing number of Western politicians does not surprise me. Under the pressure of gender ideologues, they have long introduced new laws that equate criticism of homosexuality (transvestism and other peculiarities) with hatred. By dressing up in the robes of defenders of human dignity, they try to cover the mouths of people who think differently. But where does the silence of all kinds of ecumenists come from? Where are the advocates of dialogue and closeness – now that their voice could make a difference? When they could show that what Christians have in common is a biblical understanding of life and morals? Silence across the board. All those organizers of the days of unity, dialogues, agreements, documents, and the like, remain unseen and tight-lipped. Instead of defending the Lutheran from persecution for their faith, they chose to bury their heads in the sand.

If Ms. Räsänen were convicted, she could be sentenced for up to two years in prison. The final court hearing will be held on February 14th. She herself is not going to give up. I do not know what the verdict will be, but I can already confidently say that this trial is the most shameful example of despotism in Europe.