By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
March 4, 2025
LOGANSPORT – Framing politics as a battle between good and evil, Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith urged members of the Cass County Republican Party to be shepherds who use the rod and go to “war when you’re called to stand up.”
“Yet so many times in our culture, in our politicians, in our party, I see people who don’t even know how to use the rod,” Beckwith said, describing the rod as a weapon of war. “They don’t even know what it means, let alone know how to use it.”
Beckwith was the featured speaker at the Cass County Republican Party’s annual Lincoln Day dinner on Friday, which local party leaders boasted as the longest-running Lincoln Day dinner in Indiana. Held at the Cass County Community Center, the event attracted about 160 people, who greeted each other with hugs and handshakes.
Long tables were covered with white plastic tablecloths and decorated with vases of red, white and blue flowers and plastic replicas of President Abraham Lincoln’s signature stovepipe hat. Dinner included roast beef with mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and what appeared to be a fruit cobbler.
Beckwith arrived without fanfare before the meal began. He moved easily around the room, smiling and talking to the attendees and other elected officials.
The overall atmosphere was calm and polite. When the county’s outgoing Republican Party chair David Richey referenced the GOP’s November victories in the federal and state elections by asking “Are you tired of winning yet?” the group did not give a raucous or enthusiastic response.
Then the crowd stood while Richey led a prayer before the meal, asking that Gov. Mike Braun and all the legislators would have “divine wisdom to make the right decisions.” The national anthem was sung a cappella, as several people put their hands over their hearts.
After the dinner, Beckwith, dressed in a blue blazer and open-collared white dress shirt, delivered his remarks, standing in front of the podium and engaging the crowd without referring to any notes or a prepared speech.
Beckwith did not mention the Democratic Party or any Democratic lawmakers. Saying his message was about standing up for the truth, he highlighted Moms for Liberty, which has been labeled as a hate group and called a “leader in the anti-student inclusion movement” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Moms for Liberty, Beckwith said, was bold and “advocated for what was right in our culture.” The group “saw evil in the schools” but, he said, they were called intolerant and accused of burning books. “They were going to war on evil, so our kids could know peace,” Beckwith said.
Reciting the beatitude, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” and the passage from Exodus 15:3, which says, “The Lord is a warrior,” Beckwith said making peace sometimes requires people to go into battle. He said fighting can be an act of love when it is protecting people against evil.
Beckwith cast Jesus in the image of a warrior even as he is often depicted as a shepherd carrying a lamb on his shoulder. Along with the staff that is used to herd the sheep, Beckwith said, the shepherd also carries a rod, which is used to beat any wolf that enters the pasture and tries to eat the flock. Also, he said, the rod is used to break the leg of a wandering lamb to ensure the young animal does not stray into danger.
“Sometimes we do the hard things and some people are going to be like, ‘Oh, you’re so mean, you’re so intolerant,’” Beckwith said. “(We should) say, ‘No, we’re doing the hard things because we actually love you. We actually want to protect you.”
Beckwith told the crowd that as lieutenant governor, he is going to stand up to evil and fight.
He pointed to the recent debate in the Indiana General Assembly of Senate Bill 289, which prohibited diversity, equity and inclusion policies at state agencies and state educational institutions. During the contentious third reading of the bill in the upper chamber, Beckwith sent a message on X, claiming “Indiana just TORPEDOED Woke Indoctrination!” while lawmakers were still debating.
Beckwith explained at the dinner that he made the social media post to prevent SB 289’s author, Sen. Gary Byrne, R-Byrneville, from facing the same backlash Sen. Scott Baldwin, R-Noblesville, encountered in 2022, when he introduced Senate Bill 167, which banned Critical Race Theory in schools.
Baldwin made national news – and was part of comedian Stephen Colbert’s opening monologue – when, during a committee hearing on the bill, he said he thought the educational system had gone too far in taking positions on “those isms,” like Marxism, Nazism and fascism. “We need to be impartial,” Baldwin said. Afterward, Baldwin walked back his comments, saying he was trying to convey that teachers should not tell students what to think about American politics. He told The Indianapolis Star that he wanted teachers to be impartial when talking about “legitimate political groups.”
In Logansport, Beckwith said he was “so ticked” that the “Republican calvary” did not “go to battle” for Baldwin when he was vilified for a comment that was taken out of context. So, when Byrne was “getting flayed by the Democrats” on the Senate floor over SB 289, Beckwith said Baldwin sent a text, concerned the Byrneville legislator was getting the same treatment as he did over SB 167.
Beckwith said he replied that he and Gov. Mike Braun had Byrne’s back and he instructed his staff to post a message of support on social media. He claimed the post “destroyed the argument of DEI.”
“Praise God for what is happening. We have evil on the run,” Beckwith told the crowd at the Lincoln Day dinner. “I really, truly believe that. But let’s not take our foot off the gas. Let’s continue to bear the rod and staff well. Let’s understand when we’re dealing with the wolf, rather than the sheep.”
Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
