The power of left-wing activists to block Finnish politician Päivi Räsänen from entering the UK shows the fragility of Christian freedom of expression.
Finland’s former Minister of the Interior, equivalent to the UK Home Secretary, was due to give an address in person on freedom of speech at an evangelical Christian conference in Northern Ireland this August.
The Christian MP initially had her Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to the UK approved in June. But in July she was told her ETA had been cancelled.
On July 17, the Christian Institute (CI) described the political machinations that led to the cancellation of Räsänen’s invitation.
The CI reported Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) in Northern Ireland calling for the Finnish MP “to be barred from speaking” at the Parliament Buildings at Stormont, Belfast, “due to her biblical views”.
In March Finland’s Supreme Court convicted Räsänen of ‘hate speech’ for expressing biblical sexual ethics in a pamphlet she published for her church in 2004.
CI said: “Following reports that Päivi Räsänen was invited to talk at a ‘Faith in the Public Square’ event in Stormont, associated with the Bangor Worldwide Missionary Convention, Naomi Long, the Alliance Party leader, wrote that Räsänen would ‘bring the Assembly into disrepute’ by being there, and called for her to be deplatformed.”
Long wrote to the Assembly’s Speaker, Edwin Poots, of her “profound concern”, saying: “Allowing such views to be platformed in a Stormont event would utterly violate the role that the Assembly has in representing all of the people of Northern Ireland equally.”
The CI quoted another Alliance MLA Nuala McAllister saying Parliament Buildings “must never provide a megaphone for prejudice”.
The Alliance Party, which says it wants “an inclusive, dynamic, prosperous and sustainable Northern Ireland where we can all thrive”, has 17 members on the 90-strong Assembly. Long is Minister of Justice in the Province’s devolved government.
With the help of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), Räsänen plans to appeal her conviction at the European Court of Human Rights.
On August 18 ADF reported that Räsänen would be forced to speak virtually at the conference that week after her ETA was cancelled.
The ADF and Räsänen herself called on the UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood “to make a last-minute intervention” to allow her to attend the conference in person under a full visa. Under UK law, the final decision over whether a foreign national can enter the country for work reasons lies with the Home Secretary.
Räsänen said: “It is shocking that the UK has blocked me, a democratically elected politician in an allied European state, from entering the country.
“I was convicted of ‘hate speech’ in Finland for peacefully expressing my Christian views. This was an egregious case of state censorship, noted with concern by observers around the world, including the US State Department and the US Religious Liberty Commission.
“Even though this unjust conviction is currently on appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, the UK has likely refused me travel authorisation on this basis. In doing so, the UK is punishing me for exercising my fundamental human rights.
“I call on Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to urgently intervene to allow me to enter the UK to speak at this event. There is still time for this censorship to be reversed.”
Does not the fact that the Home Secretary refused to overturn the decision show the power of left-wing activists in the UK’s political establishment to prevent orthodox Christians from expressing counter-cultural biblical views?
Julian Mann, a former Church of England vicar, is an evangelical journalist based in Lancashire.