Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and two other members of the House Freedom Caucus saluted a Finnish Member of Parliament who is on trial for quoting the Bible, an athlete who had to change in front of a member of the opposite sex, a teenager who had body parts removed by the transgender industry as a minor, and a father who protested his daughter’s sexual assault by a skirt-wearing male in a high school restroom.

Roy began by hailing Dr. Päivi Räsänen, a Member of Parliament in Finland currently facing her second trial for hate speech and allegedly committing “crimes against humanity” by posting Bible verses online. In 2019, the MP and grandmother of 10 learned the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland planned to partner with an LGBTQ march. In response, Räsänen — who is a member of the church as well as an MP with the Christian Democrats Party — posted a picture of Romans 1:24-27. She went on trial, but the Helsinki District Court unanimously dismissed the charges last March 30, saying the government violated her right to freedom of expression contained in Section 12 of the Finnish Constitution.

“When you venture into hate crimes, you are now empowering the government to determine what is in your head, and now they’re going to prosecute you for thoughts ... and in this case, in your religious views,” said Roy. “That is something we have to stand athwart.”

But since the Finnish constitution lacks any protection against double jeopardy, just days later then-Prosecutor General Raija Toiviainen charged Räsänen with “agitation against a minority” under the nation’s law against “War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity.” In addition to the message on X (known as Twitter before its rebranding by Elon Musk), prosecutors cited a 2004 pamphlet she wrote on the Bible’s teachings on sexuality, titled “Male and Female He Created Them,” which is subtitled, “Homosexual relationships challenge the Christian concept of humanity.”

Authorities also prosecuted Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola for publishing her scriptural exegesis. Her second, two-day trial began on August 31. “It was absurd and it was crazy that I had to defend the biblical truths and my interpretation about the Bible,” she told CBN News. “It was like in medieval times.” The MP now awaits her verdict from the Finnish Court of Appeal. If she again prevails, the government can continue appealing.