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European Author Of Banned Book: ‘It Is Christianity They Are Trying To Censor’

European authorities are not only banning Christians from writing about the Bible, but trying to keep the world unaware they have done so.

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A Protestant bishop and pastor’s wife will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights the Finnish Supreme Court’s recent ban on their speech affirming what the Bible says about human sexuality. The appeal could take years amid escalating Soviet-like restrictions on free speech and religious expression across the continent that extend to Americans under European internet censorship.

In its March decision, Finland’s Supreme Court tried to dodge the reality that its 3-2 conviction of Bishop Juhana Pohjola and Member of Parliament Paivi Rasanen criminalizes speech stating Christian theology about sex. It did acquit Rasanen of a charge for posting a Bible verse on X, she noted in an in-person exclusive interview with The Federalist Saturday. But then it convicted her and Pohjola under Finland’s “hate crimes” laws for writing and publishing a book discussing the central Christian teachings that men and women are different and sexually complementary. This is also the position of orthodox Muslims and Jews, and global majorities of Buddhism and Hinduism.

“It is really about the Christian view and Christianity that they are trying to prohibit and censor,” Rasanen, who is also a medical doctor, told The Federalist in English. “And now I think that many Christians and many pastors are in confusion. They do not know where’s the line. What can they teach?”

With that conviction, the court indicated Christians in Finland can quote the Bible, but not discuss, explain, or teach what it says. That threatens not only theological speech such as sermons and books, but also private conversations and the existence of any faithful Christian church or community whatsoever. It also threatens the global majority of religious adherents who acknowledge the reality that opposite-sex intimacy is physically and procreatively distinct from same-sex interactions.

Rasanen said she and Pohjola know the ECHR may be a difficult venue, but they feel compelled to appeal yet again. That’s because the other option is accepting the European erasure of Christianity and basic human rights protections Christianity has created, such as freedom of speech and toleration of lesser theological differences among orthodox Christian denominations.

Rasanen and Pohjola have now been prosecuted in Finland for more than seven years for talking and writing about the Bible. The two were acquitted at two lower courts, but prosecutors kept exercising the unusual Finnish option to re-prosecute after acquittal until they achieved a conviction. Even if the two are ultimately again acquitted at the ECHR, they and their lawyers have noted their years of legal battles have already strongly discouraged free speech.

Hostility to free speech and Christianity is growing dramatically across Europe, slowly shifting restrictions on these fundamental human rights closer to those of repressive regimes such as Russia and China. A former U.S. ambassador estimated England alone now jails more citizens over speech crimes than Vladimir Putin’s Russia, including numerous prosecutions of people for........

© The Federalist