By Sydney Byerly
The Indiana Citizen
July 24, 2025
Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith has two full-time jobs – elected official and pastor – and two July events at the Noblesville church where he has preached for five years showcased how he is blurring the lines between those roles.
Beckwith, who identifies himself as a Christian nationalist, was sworn in as Indiana’s lieutenant governor in January. He is also listed on Life Church’s website as its Noblesville campus pastor, a role he has held since 2020. He includes both positions on his personal LinkedIn profile as full-time.
Since Beckwith took office, Life Church has served as host of a series of political events. This month, Beckwith hosted a screening of a documentary that casts former President Joe Biden’s efforts to expand Title IX to protect LGBTQ+ students from discrimination – which were struck down by a federal judge and rescinded by President Donald Trump – as promoting transgenderism in schools.
Beckwith told the audience after the film that he believes his role is “to boldly proclaim biblical truth into the culture.”
“That means in education, in politics, in family life, and media,” he said.
The following week, Life Church hosted Rob McCoy, the senior pastor at Godspeak Calvary Chapel of Thousand Oaks, California, for a Turning Point USA event. Beckwith opened the event, playing a guitar and leading the crowd of standing congregants and conservative political activists in singing hymns and “God Bless America.”
“I believe when we sing praises to God, when we bless his name, he then blesses us,” he told the audience. “And I think that’s what we’re seeing in our nation. That’s what I know we need in our nation.”
Life Church did not respond to The Indiana Citizen’s request for comment on Beckwith’s role, his pay or the political events its Noblesville campus has hosted.
In Indiana, statewide elected officials typically leave their previous roles once they take office – devoting their full energies to their elected office and eliminating potential concerns about conflicts of interest, even though they are not legally required to do so.
Beckwith makes $194,000 a year as lieutenant governor. It is not clear how much he is paid by Life Church; he was not required to disclose that salary on his state financial disclosure, filed in January and covering 2024.
Beckwith’s decision to hold both jobs is being met with criticism from some religious leaders, Democrats, advocates for the separation of church and state and others.
“He demonstrates the weakness of his faith by resorting to government power to proselytize it. And he disrespects his constituents who are offended by his abuse of that power,” said Evan Davis, a retired librarian and member of Hoosiers for Separation of Church and State, launched this year as a Fort Wayne-based chapter of the national group Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Karen Tallian, the Indiana Democratic Party chair, said Beckwith is “a purely political figure who is using scripture to further his own twisted political goals.”
Beckwith’s office did not respond to The Indiana Citizen’s request for comment on the criticism over his decision to actively hold both jobs, or whether – like Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, who continued to work for a health care brokerage firm for a period after taking office – he had requested an informal advisory opinion from the inspector general’s office to review potential conflicts of interest.
Gov. Mike Braun’s office did not respond to a request for comment about whether the governor has any concerns about Beckwith holding two full-time jobs.
In an interview earlier this month with conservative talk show host Steve Deace, Beckwith was asked to describe the differences between being a politician and a pastor.
“I don’t think there is much,” Beckwith said.
“My pastoral hat, I find out what God says about things, and I tell people. As a politician, my job is to find out what God says about things and to tell people,” he said. “And you’re shepherding people. I mean, a pastor’s job is to shepherd the flock, to protect the flock, to defend the flock from evil. A politician’s job is the same way.”
Beckwith said the coronavirus pandemic, which brought temporary mask mandates and lockdowns, as well as some federal vaccine requirements, motivated him to become active in politics. Following an unsuccessful run for the Republican nomination for the open 5th Congressional district in May 2020, he first held government office in 2022, when Hamilton County Council appointed Beckwith to the Hamilton East Public Library board of trustees. After igniting controversy over a push to relocate many books from the library’s young adult section, he quit that position to run for lieutenant governor in 2024.
He told Deace that too many Christians run for public office, but abandon their ambitions if they lose their first race.
“Very rarely does God ever just snap his fingers and make it happen overnight. Usually it’s the concept of sowing and reaping, and that’s the Kingdom Principle, right?” he said. “And so in politics, it’s the same thing. I tell people, ‘OK, if you’re going to go into politics, be in it for the long game.’”
On July 11, Beckwith hosted the Friday night film screening discussion at his church. The film featured Curtis Hill, the former Indiana attorney general who was defeated by Todd Rokita at the Indiana Republican Party’s 2020 convention after Hill faced groping allegations.
Beckwith led a discussion after the screening about the role the church plays in “culture wars.”
“That’s all about God’s truth. We know God’s truth. The Bible says, through God you will know the truth and the truth will set you … free,” Beckwith said.
Nearly a week later, Life Church hosted McCoy, who spoke on behalf of TPUSA Faith, an arm of right-wing media personality Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA that characterizes its mission on social media as “eliminating wokeism from the American pulpit.”
McCoy and Beckwith both detailed their efforts to keep their churches open during the Covid-19 pandemic. Beckwith said the pandemic was hard but a good lesson for “whatever’s to come.”
“The Lord kind of showed me it after the 2024 election,” Beckwith said. “It was a victory for a lot of, I think, kicking back the woke nonsense, that demonic influence in our culture, and it was like the nation kind of came up for air.”
“But I remember the Lord kind of taking me to Scripture. He said, if you cast out the demon, and if you don’t fill the house with the Lord, that demon’s going to go back and seven more that are even more powerful than it can come back with a vengeance,” he said. “I’ve kind of been feeling that’s what is on the line right now. Great, we kicked out the demon, I think we did. But are we filling this nation with the spirit of God? We know what we went through in COVID – it’s probably going to look like Sunday school compared to what’s to come.”
During the event, McCoy praised Beckwith as a bold Christian warrior, calling him a hero.
A man from the crowd stood up during the question-and-answer portion of the evening and thanked Beckwith, saying: “You don’t apologize for your Christian faith in the Statehouse. When you make a statement to the media you stick to your word, you stick to God’s word and God bless you for sticking up for your moral beliefs.”
Running as a self-proclaimed Christian nationalist, Beckwith’s unconventional and unprecedented campaign for the second-highest office in the Hoosier state helped him beat out Braun’s preference for running-mate, state Rep. Julie McGuire, at the 2024 state GOP convention.
Since taking office, the lieutenant governor – while maintaining his pastoral duties at Life Church and serving as president of the state Senate during its session earlier this year – has also traveled the state to host town halls and pastoral roundtables.
Rev. Aaron Ban, the lead pastor at St. John’s United Church in Chesterton, said he participated in a pastoral roundtable hosted by Beckwith. Afterward, about 18 participants – including Beckwith, some pastors and some church members – joined a group chat, texting Bible verses to Beckwith’s personal cell phone daily.
Ban said the group will occasionally receive responses from the lieutenant governor. Ban said he views the effort both as a way to engage with Beckwith, and as a reminder of their biblically grounded but different visions.
However, based on their interactions, Ban said he feels the ideas Beckwith promotes are more focused on popular conservative talking points than substantive solutions. He also said he was concerned that the faith leaders invited to the roundtable were all Christians.
“There’s this kind of assumption that we’re a Christian nation – and I mean, yeah, the majority of people identify as Christian. Yet that’s never been a requirement to be a Hoosier or an American,” Ban said.
At his town halls the lieutenant governor has previously come under fire for keeping his pastoral hat on during official duties. He has been asked in several about the separation of church and state and his frequent assertion that the Founding Fathers were Christian and infused Judeo-Christian principles into the founding documents.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State has told The Indiana Citizen that the Christian nationalist movement is spreading disinformation by claiming the United States was founded on Christian principles.
Beckwith vehemently defended his references to his religious beliefs at a Muncie town hall in May.
“I do not want to shove Christianity down anybody’s throat. I don’t want a theocracy. I believe I’m a Christian. That’s my identity, all right?” he said. “I love Christ, and he’s called me to steward the nation that he’s given. He’s called me to love my neighbor as myself, right?”
“So I believe Christian nationalism, for me, is loving Christ and then stewarding America as a good American citizen,” he said.
Throughout his time as lieutenant governor, Beckwith has consistently incorporated religious themes in his events – including speeches to Republican groups.
At a Logansport event in March, he 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.”
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.”
Last week, Beckwith posted a video on social media in which he says “the church has been largely absent” amid an “assault on godliness” in politics over the last 60 years.
In his post, he wrote: “The Church in America cannot remain silent while politics shape our culture. When we disengage from these conversations, we abandon our responsibility to defend Truth. It’s time for believers to step up and be shepherds who protect others from the lies of Hell.”
The Indiana Citizen’s Marilyn Odendahl contributed to this report.
Sydney Byerly is a political reporter who grew up in New Albany, Indiana. Before joining The Citizen, Sydney reported news for TheStatehouseFile.com and most recently managed and edited The Corydon Democrat & Clarion News in southern Indiana. She earned her bachelor’s in journalism at Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism (‘Sco Griz!).
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.
