Christian nationalist lieutenant gov’s embattled church key polling location in Indiana primary

Life Church’s lawyer co-chair’s elections board, lead pastor in rehab and pastor’s son in jail

May 05, 2026

Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith preaches at Life Church Noblesville on Sunday, May 3, 2026, after calling up audience members for faith healing sessions. The embattled church is serving as a polling location Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Indiana’s primary elections. (Screenshot of YouTube by Tom LoBianco/24sight News.)

The embattled Pentecostal church of Indiana’s Christian nationalist lieutenant governor is again serving as a polling location Tuesday during the state’s closely watched primary elections.

Life Church in Noblesville, just outside Indianapolis, has long been a polling spot in the populous Hamilton County along with other churches of all stripes. But Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith’s role running the Noblesville church and an ongoing scandal which has seen lead pastor Nathan Peternel placed in a Pentecostal “restorative process” and his son sentenced to six years in prison for child sexual abuse, has shone an intense light on the small yet powerful church.

On election day Tuesday, poll workers and polling stations were tucked along the right side of Life Church chapel while a large American flag dominated the stage where Beckwith preaches on Sundays and where church leaders answered questions two weeks ago about Peternel’s punishment by the Assemblies of God.

Jocelyn Vare, former head of the Hamilton County Democratic Party, served as a poll watcher Tuesday.

“I trust that the Lt. Governor will respect election integrity and not infringe on the voting space at Life Church this year. All voters deserve an election environment that strictly adheres to Indiana law,” Vare told 24sight News. “Of course, the problem is not that Life Church is a Hamilton County polling site. We do have a problem if Pastor Micah Beckwith lacks the discipline to adhere to the voter boundary line.”

Politicians and candidates are barred by law from “electioneering” or entering polling locations where voters are casting their ballots.

Vare first locked horns with the church in 2024 protesting its likely conflict of interest as Beckwith was the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor. But her protest was rejected by the co-chair of Hamilton County elections board, Ray Adler, who also serves as the church’s lawyer, Peternel’s lawyer and provides counsel to Beckwith’s state office.

Hamilton County clerk Kathy Richardson, a longtime Republican, recalled the 2024 debate over Life Church as a location and said the board asked Vare to find an alternative location that met the accessibility requirements but that Vare was unsuccessful.

Richardson said she was unaware that Adler also serves as the church’s lawyer and had not received any formal complaints of Life Church’s use as a polling location this year. She noted that there is no known check on potential conflicts of interest for election board members.

Indiana’s elections are overseen by bi-partisan boards in its 92 counties with one Democrat and one Republican appointed by their respective county party leaders.

A 2024 report from the Indianapolis Star noted that churches are regularly used as polling locations throughout Hamilton County.

Beckwith, Adler and interim lead pastor Mike Maleto did not return requests for comment Monday and Tuesday.

The Indiana primaries have drawn most attention for President Donald Trump’s promise, to the tune of millions of dollars, of a revenge campaign against the state senators who blocked a mid-decade redrawing of Congressional maps. Politicos are watching Tuesday’s results closely to see how many of the six targeted races the White House wins, versus how many incumbent state senators survive the onslaught.

And Beckwith himself has made plenty of headlines for his stunts and hijinks over the years, going back to a book ban fight in 2022, through a fight with Indiana University’s student newspaper, instigating howls from Democratic protesters last summer over comments on immigration and, most recently, causing an uproar for calling high school band members “demonic filth”.

But his dual role as pastor of Life Church Noblesville and the entangling of his church and state offices has proven troubling for the avowed Christian nationalist.

The discovery of his staff, including his lawyer who serves on the board of Life Church, watching a deepfake porn of a lawmaker’s wife in their state office led to the opening of a criminal probe into possible violations of the state’s nonconsensual porn laws and possible ghost employment violations. (Beckwith has denied any deepfake video was ever made and pointed to an abbreviated investigation he conducted over the course of a day or two as proof.)

A month after the criminal probe opened, Beckwith’s employer, friend and adviser, Life Church lead pastor Nathan Peternel, was greeted in the early morning of Sept. 10 by police executing a search warrant searching for child sexual abuse material on his son’s cellphone. Six weeks later Peternel’s son was arrested on four felony counts of child sexual abuse and exploitation, and Peternel himself went on the defense explaining why police found videos on his son’s phone of him and his wife having sex.

In February, Peternel’s son was sentenced to six years in prison, and a week later Peternel himself was forced in to a Pentecostal rehab program following an internal investigation by the Assemblies of God.

Beckwith’s state office has referred all questions regarding the church to the church, which does not answer questions.

But in a private meeting at Life Church two weeks ago, in the same chapel where voters were casting ballots Tuesday, Beckwith acknowledged Peternel’s punishment by the Assemblies of God for conduct “unbecoming of a pastor” and urged congregants to fight against Assemblies of God leaders.

Two of Beckwith’s staffers, Paula Copenhaver and Kristi Risk, are running in Tuesday’s primaries. Copenhaver is one of the six Republican challengers endorsed by Trump running against state Sen. Spencer Deery. Risk is running for a seat being vacated by one of the White House’s key targets, but Trump endorsed a different challenger in that race.