Beckwith sermon, once again, draws the wrong kind of attention

A friend reached out the other day, disappointed and sad that Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith gave a sermon entitled “How to hate properly” in the church she grew up in. He was wearing Indiana’s torch and stars on his chest.

Then readers started responding to the circulating video.

“This was a political program delivered from a pulpit. Beckwith called Christians to carry their interpretation of Scripture into politics, encouraged the church to support its pastor in that fight, and exercised authority ‘as Lieutenant Governor’ because, he said, God had given that authority to him,” Columbia City resident Kate Penney Howard wrote.

“That should concern Christians and non-Christians alike,” she added. “In Indiana, public authority comes from the people and is restrained by the Constitution; not bestowed upon selected officials by their own reading of God’s will.”

Here we are again, with Beckwith bringing negative attention to the great state of Indiana.

I sought comment from him, but his office didn’t respond.

Beckwith recently drew national concern in May when he called on Americans “to hate” more. And he doubled down with the sermon, though he said the pastor at Faith Baptist Church in Elkhart asked him to specifically preach on the topic.

The question is whether Gov. Mike Braun and Republicans will do anything about it.

Hoosier GOP insiders spurn party establishment, nominate Beckwith for LG

I decided to listen to the sermon, and it was certainly unlike anything I ever heard when I was growing up in church. I can’t imagine how parents sitting in the pews with children explained it to their offspring.

Beckwith centered his speech on a Romans verse: “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.”

At another point he said the cross “teaches us how to hate.”

He called on congregants to bring religion into the public square of politics.

“We don’t hate people because they’re Democrats. We don’t hate people because they’re Republicans. We don’t hate atheists. We don’t hate Muslims,” Beckwith said. “We don’t hate the members of the LGBTQ community trapped in sexual sin and a warped identity. We don’t hate our political opponents. They bear the image of God. They are people Christ calls us to love and evangelize. We hate the things that are destroying them.”

This comes at the same time Beckwith sent a video to a pro-deportation rally. His comments were unwelcoming to foreigners and focused on Hoosier values without explaining what those are.

“American values are what we want people to assimilate into,” he said in the video. ” …  if you want to come here, you become like us.”

When Braun was asked about the hate comments Wednesday, he said again that Beckwith should think twice about his wording. But he never condemns his second in command.

If Braun wants to run again in 2028, he has a big choice: accept that his lieutenant governor reflects on him or to take a firm stand for a replacement.

That means finding a strong candidate, presenting his pick early, filling convention delegate slots with supporters and working hard to get that person nominated.

“Well, that is a convention function that’ll be for whoever the running mate is, and most of that hasn’t impacted the policy part of it. He’s been a supporter on everything I’ve talked about on policy,” Braun told the Capital Chronicle. “When it comes to the politics, that’s going to be mostly an issue of how that impacts the individual that maybe not doing things that are going to get you elected to a convention, or especially in a statewide race where you got to go directly to the voters.”

Beckwith means exactly what he says, and no amount of mealy mouthed admonishment is going to get him to change.