Finland and freedom of speech

Päivi Räsänen continues to say with the apostles, “We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). Räsänen, a long-serving Finnish Lutheran parliamentarian, first faced police investigation and criminal prosecution for a tweet in June 2019, when she questioned her church’s support of Pride Month by quoting a Bible verse. She was then criminally charged under Finland’s law on agitation against a population group, commonly described in English as a “hate-speech” law. Her case has wound its way through multiple levels of the Finnish court system.

The case has reached the end of the road in the Finnish courts, after the Finnish Supreme Court handed down a mixed decision on March 26, 2026. The court unanimously acquitted her on a charge stemming from the 2019 tweet of a Bible verse, but on a split 3-2 decision it found her and Bishop Juhana Pohjola guilty of hate speech for redistributing a 2004 church pamphlet on marriage and sexuality. “The court acknowledged that the pamphlet contained no incitement to violence or comparable threats fomenting hatred, but ‘made available to the public and kept available to the public opinions that insult homosexuals as a group on the basis of their sexual orientation.’ ”¹ The court ordered that the pamphlet be destroyed and re-moved from public access and that Räsänen pay a fine of 1,800 euros. In May 2026, Räsänen appealed that verdict to the European Court of Human Rights. WELS President Mark Schroeder has highlighted this situation as an example of a Christian who is standing firmly against governmental pressure to sacrifice God’s Word.² The European appeal may take years, but the outcome remains in the Lord’s hands. Pray that the Lord would break and defeat every evil plan of the devil and that the Lord would support Räsänen in this fight.

Changes in military chaplaincy

Military chaplains are commissioned officers who serve the spiritual needs of service members, perform religious rites, and give emotional and morale guidance within their respective branches. In June 2026, the US military chaplaincy publicized some drastic changes. The Department of Defense issued a revised list of faith affiliation codes, which reduced the number of codes used for military personnel records and chaplaincy planning from 211 to 31.

The change is the list’s first adjustment since 2017. The revision excludes previously listed groups such as atheists, unitarian universalists, pagans, and deists, and instead includes broad categories such as “No Religion” or “Other Religion.” About 82 percent of service members fall into six code categories. The changes have created some controversy. Critics, especially representatives of minority religious groups and church-state separation advocates, argue that the change marginalizes smaller groups and risks creating the appearance of a government hierarchy of religions.³ According to a Pentagon spokesperson, the change “is designed to allow chaplains to quickly look at the religious composition of their units and determine how they structure resources to best provide for warfighters of all faith groups.”4 Members and leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also objected because they were originally not labeled as “Christian.” The “Christian” designation has since been removed from specific groups, and the denomination label is now the description for various groups (e.g., “Methodist” instead of “Christian–Methodist”).

WELS members will want to pay attention to this development out of concern that any new chaplaincy pathway preserves biblical and confessional integrity. WELS has historically avoided the chaplaincy program as a mixture of church and state, among other doctrinal and practical concerns. This was part of the tension between our synod and the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod in the 1940s and 1950s. Instead, our synod has utilized civilian chaplains and military contact pastors at local congregations. Recently, WELS leaders have discussed exploring entry into the US military chaplaincy program and are working on a resolution to be considered at the 2027 synod convention. It remains to be seen whether the new codes and the way they are implemented will affect that study or our current ministry to men and women in uniform.

¹adfinternational.org/cases/paivi

²forwardinchrist.net/never-take-it-for-granted

³religionnews.com/2026/06/04/department-of-defense-drops-more-than-100-recognized-faith-groups

4 military.com/dods-official-new-recognized-religion-list-draws-strong-lds-rebuke

Author: Benjamin Schaefer
Volume 113, Number 08
Issue: August 2026