Indiana pastor Nathan Peternel regularly pried congregants about sex in pre-marital counseling, per documents
Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith announces Christmas Eve services canceled at embattled Life Church
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The head of Indiana’s powerful Life Church regularly requested congregants tell him privately about their intimate sexual relationships before getting married, according to documents obtained by 24sight News.
Nathan Peternel demanded congregants in pre-marital counseling sessions say how nervous they were about consummating their marriage on the wedding night on a scale of 1 - 10, if they discussed sex with their parents in a way that was “dirty” or “sparse”, if they and their fiance “had behaved improperly toward each other”, and if they “had sexual relations with another person.”
The newest revelation comes as families have continued fleeing the powerful Indiana church, where Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith leads one of its four campuses. On Sunday, Beckwith announced during his sermon that Christmas Eve services were canceled.
“This year we wanted to give you a chance to kind of go and be with your family,” Beckwith said.
Peternel has faced calls to resign from inside the secretive Pentecostal church for weeks since his son was arrested on seven felony counts of possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material and also found with more than 50 videos of his parents naked or having sex.
Reports of abuse by Peternel, including demanding that minors tell him about their sexual relationships, have further spurred families to call for his resignation or leave altogether. In secretly recorded audio obtained by 24sight News, Peternel claimed he cannot be removed by his church board.
Peternel did not return a request for comment for this story and has refused to respond to requests for comment for two months now. Beckwith and the head of Indiana’s state Assemblies of God, which includes Life Church as an affiliate, previously told congregants to stop talking about the scandal and asking questions.
Peternel has headed Life Church for more than a decade, but the church has risen to prominence since he hired Beckwith and helped run his successful campaign for Indiana lieutenant governor, becoming a hub of political activity and regularly hosting events with the state’s top Republicans.
Beckwith, who is employed by the taxpayers of Indiana and Peternel, has declined to answer questions about Peternel’s conduct, but said two weeks ago he was sticking with Peternel at Life Church.
Peternel has said that he wrote his senior paper in Bible college on the need to teach sex education in church, part of a movement to fight the “satanic” perversion of sex in popular culture that some pastors have railed against for decades.
But since taking the lead of his first youth group in the late ‘90s, which he gave the same name as a neo-Nazi group out of Florida, Peternel has regularly pressured children under his supervision to describe intimate relationships in graphic detail and regularly talked about his own intimate relationships with his wife.
The videos of Peternel and his wife having sex discovered on their son’s cellphone shocked many outside the church, but current and former congregants who have spoken with 24sight News said they were unsurprised given Peternel’s insistence on preaching about sex regularly from the pulpit over their objections.
The pre-marital worksheets Peternel gave to couples looking to get married covered a range of topics from improving communication to managing household finances, but also included a section titled “Intimacy” with a subhead stating “Shouldn’t this part be easy?”
Over the course of nine questions, Peternel pried into their private lives.
“Did you ever discuss sex with your parents?” read one question. The follow-up read, “If so, how was the topic related? (e.g. fearful, duty, dirty, in detail, sparse facts)”
Another question asked if it was “OK for Christian couples to plan when they will have children”.
Peternel also asked, “Do you believe that certain sexual acts are immoral in marriage?”
Peternel also included a list of recommended books compiled of self-help marriage books published by the nation’s largest Christian right publishing house in Michigan, ranging from better communication and the stages of marriage to more graphic books detailing “Erogenous Zones”, “Sensuous Massage” and “Making Love with Clothes On” authored by a Christian right sex therapist.
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.
The “Jesus, Sex and Politics” investigation:
Beckwith adviser was with son in September when police executed warrant in child porn case - 10/24/25
Beckwith adviser Peternel responds to son’s child porn charges in Sunday video - 10/26/25
AUDIO: Nathan Peternel church message on sex videos, son’s arrest - 10/31/25
Peternel pried teen girl about sex life in closed-door ‘counseling’, woman says - 11/6/25
Beckwith adviser’s son gets public defender as church scandal grows - 11/10/25
Peternel says he can’t be fired by church board - 11/19/25
Peternel says son hacked sex videos of him and wife while high - 12/7/25
Families flee embattled Life Church amid abuse reports, child porn arrest - 12/17/25
Indiana deepfake porn scandal stories:
Topless deepfake video roils Indiana office, lawmaker’s wife targeted, per sources - 8/2/25
Indy prosecutor probes topless deepfake, Haggard blasts ‘pornographic smear’ of his wife - 8/5/25
BREAKING: Lt. Gov. spokesman quits amid deepfake probe - 8/7/25
Lawmaker whose wife was targeted launching Congressional bid - 8/11/25
Lt. Gov.’s office adopts new employee handbook, Gov. calls in Beckwith for meeting - 8/14/25
A lot of this is just what evangelicals do. The pre-marital counseling doesn’t surprise me. Many evangelicals are way too obsessed with sex, and time and time again it always comes back to secrets they are hiding in their own closets.
<<On Sunday, Beckwith announced during his sermon that Christmas Eve services were canceled. “This year we wanted to give you a chance to kind of go and be with your family,” Beckwith said.>>
This is absolutely unacceptable and abhorrent. A Christian Church closing its doors at a time when all other churches in this and every other community are welcoming in anyone and everyone to attend and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ?
I am not in the inner-circles of Life Church, as I'm not related by blood or marriage to Nathan or Micah, but I have to believe this decision came down from Nathan, who is making himself and putting his personal interests above that of his Church and Christmas itself. His role/job/calling as Pastor calls upon him to especially serve his Church and the Gospel of Jesus during the Christmas season.
Life Church ought to be about the proclaiming, teaching, and celebrating Jesus. If Nathan needs to resign, go on sabbatical, or just stay home this week, delegating Christmas duties to his campus Pastors, then so be it, but this is highly inappropriate and unfair to the members of Life Church who deserve better than being told to "kind of go and be with your family."