Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen, who was recently convicted by Finland’s Supreme Court for quoting the Bible, has been told that she cannot go through the UK’s Heathrow Airport in London due to her “hate crime” conviction.
Writer Rod Dreher broke the news on his Substack last week. The incident has not yet been detailed by any other outlets, but Dreher’s report was reposted on X by the senior counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom, which has defended Räsänen in court.
Räsänen was speaking at an ADF conference and shared the news with the audience. “I was told that Päivi was told on her flight here from Finland that she cannot go through London’s Heathrow airport on the flight back,” Dreher wrote.“Why? Because she’s a convicted hate criminal! The UK has determined that her presence in Britain — even simply making a connecting flight in the airport! — is unwelcome.”
The court unanimously acquitted the former minister of the interior for her 2019 tweet quoting Scripture but convicted Räsänen for “hate speech” under the “war crimes and crimes against humanity” section of the Finnish criminal code for a 2004 booklet she co-authored for her church with Bishop Juhana Pohjola, who was also found guilty.
The 22-year-old booklet she was convicted for, however, made the case from the Bible for natural marriage—over a decade before same-sex “marriage” was legalized in Finland.
Nonetheless, Räsänen was retroactively convicted for defending the biblical position on marriage because LGBT activists and their judicial allies relentlessly pursued her prosecution. Räsänen was ordered to pay a fine of €1,800 and the foundation that published the booklet was fined €5,000. Räsänen was previously acquitted unanimously by two lower courts on all charges.
Räsänen, a sitting MP, physician, and former cabinet minister, has now been formally labeled a hate criminal. The consequences of that conviction—and the goal of the LGBT activists who persecuted her—are now coming to fruition.
“I think Päivi is a canary in the civilizational coal mine,” Dreher wrote.“The progressive bureaucratic order in European countries would rather attack faithful Christians as Enemies Of Society than deal with the actual problems they have. We can expect more of this. It’s a Finnish Lutheran lawmaker and grandmother today; it could easily be you tomorrow.”
Sean Nelson of ADF concurred. “Once they label you a hater, they will never stop seeking to punish you,” he wrote on X. “This madness must be stopped.God bless Päivi Räsänen.”
