Indiana Lt. Gov. Beckwith presses church to stop talking about embattled pastor Peternel

State’s second in command and head of Life Church Noblesville wraps year with attendance down, tells former congregant to say it to his face

Jan 02, 2026

Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith tells his congregation to stop gossiping about lead pastor Nathan Peternel and the growing abuse scandal in a Dec. 28, 2025 sermon. In a later text exchange obtained by 24sight News, Beckwith tried to stop a former congregant from talking about Life Church. (Screenshot of YouTube and text message by Tom LoBianco/24sight News. Graphic by Tom LoBianco/24sight News.)

🚨🚨 Friends, I’m crowdsourcing this investigative series. My reporting is having an impact, but I need your support while I’m uncovering all this. Please contribute at PayPal or Venmo or via my GoFundMe page.🚨🚨

Indiana’s embattled Christian nationalist lieutenant governor wrapped 2025 preaching to his shrinking congregation that they should stop talking about the church abuse scandal during a lengthy sermon featuring vintage footage of boxers and an airing of grievances.

He then opened 2026 by tailing a former congregant on Facebook and telling her husband any criticism should be said to his face, the latest in his effort to stall discussion of Life Church lead pastor Nathan Peternel’s abuse and the criminal case of Peternel’s son.

“Glad your wife is still listening to my sermons,” Beckwith wrote in a text message obtained by 24sight News. “But if she has a problem she should come say it to me.”

Beckwith is set to return to the statehouse next week as lawmakers return to wrap their 2026 session, following the bruising defeat of a White House-led effort to eliminate the last two Democratic-held congressional seats in Indiana.

In addition to the church abuse scandal which has rocked his job as pastor, Beckwith and his office also remain under criminal investigation for a deepfake porn video of a lawmaker’s wife viewed by his staff in the office and possible violations of Indiana’s “ghost employment” law meant to bar workers and politicians from campaigning using state resources.

Beckwith stopped replying to 24sight News last August after the scoop on his staff watching the deepfake porn in his office. (In a call with 24sight News at the time, Beckwith said he was certain the deepfake porn never happened and also said that if any evidence was found those staffers would be fired.)

Since then, Beckwith seems to have blocked 24sight News’ cellphone. Beckwith’s communications staffers have said they can’t talk about what Beckwith does in his other job as pastor.

A 24sight News post to Facebook earlier this week noted that this story was coming and opened the door to comment from Beckwith, in the comments on the post former congregants bemoaned Beckwith’s behavior and the demise of Life Church.

“Sadly, the church has drifted so far from seeking, hearing and obeying the Lord in this situation,” wrote one former congregant in reply to Jan Hendricks, which spurred Beckwith to text Hendricks’ husband. Beckwith seems to have been relayed the message by one of his staffers who watched the deepfake porn, his general counsel Devin Norrick, who also serves on the board of director for the embattled Life Church.

Since starting as a Pentecostal pastor decades ago, Peternel has regularly discussed sex with minors and preached to his entire congregation, including children, about the “pleasures” of engaging in intercourse. In one instance reported by 24sight News, Peternel assaulted a 17-year-old girl and her fiancé in a closed-door “pre-marital counseling session” demanding that they describe their intimate relations with each other, including what body parts they use and other graphic details.

Peternel’s son was arrested in October of seven felony counts of owning and distributing child sexual abuse material. Police also found on the son’s cellphone, more than 50 videos of Peternel and his wife naked or having sex. Since then Peternel has accused his son of getting high and hacking into a file drive to obtain the videos. But he has not fully explained why as lead pastor of a politically powerful church he and his wife were filming themselves.

Peternel regularly discussed having sex with his wife in front of the congregation and other X-rated topics like where they could buy sex toys.

Peternel and Beckwith have yet to discuss the extensive preaching about sex at Life Church, but since the arrest of Peternel’s son they have deleted two episodes of their podcast “Jesus, Sex and Politics,” including one in which they spoke with experts on fighting child sex abuse.

In his lengthy sermon last Sunday, Beckwith preached that Ephesians 4:29 means, “If it ain’t nice, then keep your mouth shut.”

Beckwith spoke extensively about the human tongue, talking about its color related to health, saying it couldn’t possibly have been created by evolution, number of muscles in the tongue, tongue related idioms and other trivia before launching into a series of tongue twisters.

He then said that Ephesians 4:29 tells that people should not use “foul or abusive language”, and chastised the Noblesville campus of Life Church, “I have seen more gossip and slander come out of this campus than any of our other campuses.”

Beckwith then asked the congregants, including the church’s lawyer, a local powerbroker, to let off some steam at the end of the year by throwing fuzzy snowballs at each other.

If you would like to get in touch to discuss what is happening in Life Church or have a news tip, please email: tom@24sight.news.