The Supreme Court of Finland confirmed Friday that Finnish parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen will face trial a third time over her five-year-old Bible verse tweet that criticized the Finnish Lutheran Church for promoting LGBT “pride month.”

Police began investigating the grandmother of 11 shortly after her 2019 tweet in which she posted a photo from the book of Romans and questioned how the Finnish Lutheran Church could agree with “shame and sin” being presented as “a matter of pride.”

Räsänen, who led Finland’s Christian Democratic Party from 2004 to 2015 and served as the country’s interior minister from 2011 to 2015, is being dragged into court again despite having been acquitted twice by lower courts on hate crime charges, according to a statement from lawyers at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International.

“In a democratic Western nation in 2024, nobody should be on trial for their faith — yet in Finland throughout the prosecution of Päivi Räsänen and Bishop Pohjola, we have seen something akin to a ‘heresy’ trial, where Christians are dragged through court for holding beliefs that differ from the approved orthodoxy of the day,” Paul Coleman, executive director of ADF International said.

The state’s persistence in going after Räsänen and Pohjola for nearly half a decade despite multiple acquittals is “alarming,” Coleman said, fearing “the process is the punishment in such instances, resulting in a chill on free speech for all citizens observing.”

“Their right to speak freely is everyone’s right to speak freely,” he added.

European governments have increasingly clamped down on speech critical of homosexuality in recent years.

Earlier this month, France’s gender equality minister Aurore Bergé called for the prosecution of Father Matthieu Raffray, a Roman Catholic priest who drew the ire of the state for describing homosexual inclinations as “a weakness” that must be fought like any other sin.

In Malta, Matthew Grech faced criminal charges under the country’s conversion therapy ban last year for giving his Christian testimony about leaving a homosexual lifestyle on a radio show. The radio hosts who gave him a platform were also charged.

Speaking about proposed anti-hate speech legislation in Ireland that would apply to sexual orientation, ADF CEO Kristen Waggoner told The Christian Post in December that her organization perceives “a global trend toward censorship.”

“And it’s not just a disregard for free speech; it’s an active targeting to silence speech by the government,” she said, adding that the United States is not immune to such trends despite the U.S. Constitution.

We should not be surprised at these actions as Jesus told us that great tribulation would precede His return.

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” Matthew 24:9-12

Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post.