Tue Jan 25, 2022 – 8:05 pm EST
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – A group of U.S. senators signed a letter asking for actions to be taken against Finland for violating religious liberty.
The letter, signed by Republican Senators James Lankford of Oklahoma, Marco Rubio of Florida, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma and Mike Braun of Indiana was addressed to the U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom.
“We are greatly concerned that the use of Finnish law is tantamount to a secular blasphemy law,” the letter states. The senators, reacting to the prosecution of Päivi Räsänen and Bishop Juhana Pohjola for defense of the biblical concept of marriage, fear that Finland’s actions could “open the door for prosecution of other devout Christians, Muslims, Jews and adherents of other faiths for publicly stating their religious that may conflict with secular trends.”
The letter was released as the case against Räsänen, a member for the Finnish parliament and former Minister of the Interior, and Pohjola, a bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland, went to trial Monday.
Charges were filed against Räsänen and Pohjola last year. They are being accused of “ethnic agitation,” or inciting violence against a minority, for the publication of a 2004 pamphlet entitled Male and Female He Created Them: Homosexual relationships challenge the Christian conception of humanity. Räsänen faces two other charges, one for a tweet in which she criticized the Lutheran Church’s support of a pride event and for speaking out against gay
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