‘Americans, this is coming to you’: Rep. Roy stands with persecuted Finnish Christians on trial for their beliefs

WASHINGTON—Thursday morning, Rep. Roy and Family Research Council's Tony Perkins joined Fox and Friends to bring attention to the persecution of two Finnish Christians. MP Päivi Räsänen, and Bishop Juhana Pohjola are standing trial for alleged "hate speech" after professing widely shared, long-held Christian beliefs.

Key quotes from the interview are below and the interview clip is available here.

• "It's pretty shocking. This is a story that is one of the most troubling stories that you haven't heard of, meaning the average American hasn't heard of. You've got a Member of Parliament in Finland, who literally just tweeted out a Bible verse, scripture from the Book of Romans from the Bible, talking about the issue of, LGBTQ type issues in Finland, and now she's facing charges, facing two years of jail time. A bishop then echoed that sentiment, and this bishop is similarly facing up to two years of jail time."
  
• "People can disagree about issues, but if you're talking about putting people in jail for quoting the Bible, and then the prosecutor said that the Bible can't, quote, 'trump Finnish law'. The prosecutor said, 'don't worry, you can keep your Bibles, but you know what, you just can't say you agree with it'. This is a really chilling reality in a Western civilization country. This isn't Iran, this isn't China. This is Finland."
  
• "The American people need to know this is coming to a theater near you, and it's coming in the form of the Equality Act, which is why I opposed it, because that would similarly start to criminalize the way that we approach out disagreements on issues when they're based on our faith."
  
• "We cannot be silent in the face of this, and God bless Päivi, God bless Bishop Pohjola for standing up for their freedoms. Guess what? The prosecutors offered them a deal: 'walk away from what you said, walk away from your faith, walk away from your Christian faith and recant what you said, and we won't prosecute you'. They didn't do it, because they're standing up for their beliefs. Americans, this is coming to you. Let's stand with these brave Finnish patriots and make sure that we're fighting for our religious liberty."

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