Makawon Butterfield

Makawon Butterfield, played by actor Victor Williams

Makawon Butterfield is a megachurch pastor in season 2. In the first episode, "I Speak in the Tongues of Men and Angels," it is revealed that Makawon Butterfield and his spouse engaged in the services of escorts, as revealed to the public by investigative journalist, Thaniel Block. Block published his story about the Butterfields in the New York Times, which led to a council of fellow megachurch pastors to decide his fate. Arguing what he did was consensual and private, Butterfield believed he should continue leading his flock. However, Eli Gemstone and the other pastors believed the story to be too harmful to their congregation, and thus demand his resignation.

Butterfield then sprints out of the conference room, runs to the nearest balcony, and attempts suicide by jumping off. However, he did not succeed, as the other pastors look on the ground to see Makowon with a bilateral fracture of his legs but not dead.

At the end of the season, it is revealed that Thaniel Block's source for the Butterfield story was Lyle Lissons. Lissons had been leaking personal and embarrassing stories to Block for some time, before Block went to South Carolina to investigate the Gemstone family. Lyle met with Block in South Carolina, refusing to give Block dirt on the Gemstones as he did with the Butterfields, due to Lyle's ongoing business relationship with Jesse and Amber Gemstone. Thaniel then threatened to turn his sights on Lyle and his wife Lindy, which led Lyle to leaving the cabin where Thaniel was staying and Thaniel's eventual accidental death.

It is not known what happens to the Butterfields after Makawon's suicide attempt. Butterfield's scandal closely resembles a lot of sex scandals that involved megachurch pastors from the 1980s through to now: Jimmy Swaggart (solicited a prostitute and ended up defrocked by the Assemblies of God), Ted Haggard (solicited a male prostitute before being removed from ministry at New Life Church in Colorado), and John Blanchard of Rock Church in Virginia Beach (where he was busted in a sting operation soliciting underage prostitutes).

The council of pastors that decided Makawon's fate is actually a parallel to a real-life group of megachurch pastors that meet regularly to decide things like forcing pastors out, salaries, and other issues. This was confirmed by the pastor and executive of Elevation Church in Charlotte, where the pastor Steven Furtick's salary is set by other megachurch pastors, in a group called the "Board of Overseers". In 2011, this "Board of Overseers" was confirmed to consist of: "Pastor Dino Rizzo (Healing Place Church – Baton Rough, LA), Dr. Jack Graham (Prestonwood Baptist Church – Plano, TX), Pastor Perry Noble (Newspring Church – Anderson, SC), Pastor Kevin Gerald (Champions Centre – Seattle, WA), Pastor Stovall Weems (Celebration Church – Jacksonville, FL), [and] Pastor Steven [Furtick] also serves on the Board, but does not vote on his salary."  It is notable that Perry Noble, formerly of NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC, was removed from ministry over alcoholism and other undisclosed issues, and was asked to resign by the Board much like Makawon Butterfield was.

1. ↑ Christian Post Article from 2013