This page is a compilation of various websites and documents that have responded to someone named Jim Wright — a man Frank doesn’t know, has never met, and has never spoken to on the phone — as well as Wright’s pattern of abuse, including smearing numerous ministers and authors throughout the years with false and outrageous accusations against Frank and many of his friends. These accusations were fully discredited in 2013 when Wright first launched his smear campaign.
Sincerely,
Jared Patel
–
Important Facts & History Before Responding to Debunked Allegations
* Since 2012, an unknown man with a history of smearing people with false accusations named Jim Wright has been attacking Frank Viola, Jon Zens, Milt Rodriguez, Chris Kirk, Ken Eastburn, Felicity Dale and other ministers, spreading horrendous deceptions about each of them.
* Wright has deliberately confused one author with a known sex offender in Florida who has the same name. Frank Anthony Viola (the author) is not the same man as Anthony Frank Viola (link), the sex offender. But both do live in the state of Florida. (Wright doesn’t know Viola. He’s never met him nor spoken to him by phone. Nor does he personally know any of Frank’s friends.)
* Wright has a history of accusing people he doesn’t know of “predation” and other sexual crimes. These allegations are not only false and baseless, they are outrageous. Several of Wright’s Facebook pages were removed by Facebook’s abuse department for defamation, bullying, and harassment. See CrossroadJunctionWatch.com for details.
* Wright has been attacking Zens, Viola, Rodriguez and those who are part of the former House2House ministry (K. Eastburn, K. Giles, T. , N. Cole, and F. Dale, etc.) since 2012 out of a personal vendetta because none of them would give him a hearing as he desired leadership in organic church circles. Wright also became angered and offended when they disagreed with his fundamentalistic viewpoints on their blogs. (See Wright’s furious comment in one such blog post from February 13, 2012 and the responses to him. After he made that comment in 2012, he began his smear campaign against these authors.)
* Salacious allegations of “sexual exploitation” of a teen, criminal charges, “cover ups,” adultery, and other outrageous accusations that allegedly took place in the year 2000 are untrue and have been debunked.
Jon Zens is among those who have disproved these allegations when they first appeared. Ironically, Wright found an old archived letter from 2002 written by Jon Zens. Jon recanted that letter shortly afterward when he discovered he was misinformed about the information. Wright embellished the accusations, fabricated details and launched a smear campaign that appeared to be new and titillating. His custom is to call any person he doesn’t like a “cult leader” and those who follow them part of a “cult.” This charge is also outlandish and false in the case of the people Wright has attacked in the house church community.
* An indiscretion that too place in the year 2000 (which was not adultery) was distorted by Wright with salacious and scurrilous fabrications added. The indiscretion was dealt with biblically and fully repented of, openly confessed to the fellowship, and bears little resemblance to Wright’s uninformed tabloid version with made-up stories he fabricated. (This is discussed more below.)
Jon Zens was involved first-hand with the situation and witnessed the confession and repentance. He set Wright straight about the accusations in early 2013. But Wright chose to deliberately ignore the facts and repeat his false and salacious narrative obsessively, year after year, to try and discredit the people he hates. At the time of this writing, Wright continues his obsessive relentless attacks, and as a result, he’s lost all credibility, being disfellowshipped by the house church leadership community and banned from at least ten Facebook groups.
* According to the court documents from Jim Wright’s divorce listed on CrossroadJunctionWatch.com and another site that exposed him, Wright’s wife divorced him, he’s was reprimanded by the court for slandering his wife in public and violating court orders. According to the websites, there are also issues that involve his relationship with his adult children (due to spiritual abuse). The sad state of Jim Wright’s personal life adds to his hypocrisy of attacking people he doesn’t know with false allegations.
* Wright has a history of creating phony sex scandals and has been excommunicated by at least three different Christian groups and churches for slander and smears. Details can be found on the links below this report. He was also disfellowshipped publicly by 35 leaders of the house church movement in 2013. Wright has yet to repent.
*Bart Breen, one of the people who has exposed Wright’s abusive history, has been smeared by Wright with outlandish allegations. This is common. When an abuser is exposed, the abuser will bully, harass, lie about, and attack the person who has exposed them.
Jim Wright’s History of Slandering Others & Employment of Unethical Methods
* In the last church that Jim Wright was a part of, he spread slander against his pastor and staff after his attempts at getting into the church leadership were rejected. The church excommunicated Wright for the sin of slander and causing division. Jim’s slander of the pastor was so severe that the church felt forced to seek legal counsel regarding the situation. As is Wright’s pattern, the slander was salacious and scurrilous. On Jim’s blog he mentioned that he decided to leave this church but omits the fact that he was disciplined because of his abuse.
* Previous to that incident, Wright was part of another church where he spread outright lies and distortions about the staff after his attempts at getting into the leadership there were also refused. Two of us spoke to these pastors and heard their sad stories. One of them said, “Jim Wright has caused a lot of trouble for some of the pastors in our community. He distorts and exaggerates.”
* There are other incidences that hit much closer to home with respect to Wright’s personal life. See Is Jim Wright Qualified to be an Elder?
* Some investigators have asked Wright several times who is accountable to and he has offered no names. According to Donovan Bates, who has visited Wright’s home group in 2012 (made up of 8-10 people at the time), there do not appear to be any elders who Wright is accountable to. This is ironic as Wright has made a big deal about “accountability,” and the leaders he has been accusing are submitted to a number of Christian leaders.
* Wright often uses the plural “we” when he writes his slanderous allegations against others. But only Wright’s name appears at the end of these documents. It is obvious that Wright himself has made up the charges.
* In 2012, Wright made a big deal on his blog and Facebook page about a church “scandal.” He claimed that 6 staff members were involved in a sex scandal and that it was a “huge” case, one of the largest of its kind. Some of us did some research and talked to the parties involved and discovered that this was a complete distortion of the facts. There was a lawsuit, but it wasn’t “huge.” It didn’t involve 6 staff members. It only involved 1 staff member and it was not about a sex scandal, but about an issue of employment discrimination. Jon Zens spoke directly to the pastor of this church about the incident.
* Wright often references a “victim’s support ministry” blog that “confirms” Wright’s false misrepresentations of others . However, Wright himself created and manages this “support ministry” blog. Wright’s presentation of this “support ministry” blog as a source of objective information and “confirmation” of his accusations is misleading and deceptive. Further, there is no evidence of a board of directors or other organizational reality to this ministry. It appears to be simply Jim Wright himself.
*Donovan Bates has gone on record saying that ever since he has known Jim Wright (2006), he has never known him to apologize, admit to any wrong doing (even when confronted directly with it), and has never taken responsibility or ownership for anything he has done wrong. We all have observed the same thing. This is an indication of an unchecked ego and the sin of pride.
* According to the website research below, Jim Wright created fake Facebook accounts and used them to join the Facebook groups from which he has been banned: namely, Joe Ashton and Adam Bartmann.
* Keith Smith, and his wife Jeanne Elder Smith worked with Jim Wright in 2013 in smearing the members of the House2House church community and authors who were once a part of it. They have no relationship with most of the leaders including Frank. According to CrossroadJunctionWatch.com, Keith Smith was caught fabricating his academic credentials as a counselor. It was proven that he stole a real counselor’s identity and credentials.
The Smith’s too have been banned from multiple Facebook groups and there is evidence to demonstrate that they created fake Facebook accounts as late as 2013 which have been used to raise money for the Smith’s ministry and to disparage other Christians on Facebook. We believe those fake aliases to be:
Tricia Lopez
Ann Clarkson
Lindee Lind
Adam Donahue
Tom Moore
Christina Swansea
Elijah Moon
Florian Jager (and there are likely others)
If you are Facebook friends with any of these characters, they are not real people and their intentions have been malicious.
Update: Keith Smith suddenly died in February 2018.
Letter from Jon Zens – More Details and Responses
My name is Jon Zens. I’m the editor of Searching Together magazine which has been around since 1972. For many years, my wife Dotty and I have been involved in helping sexual abuse victims, especially those caught up in sex trafficking and prostitution.
I’m writing this note because there have been a number of heinous rumors spread about my friend and co-laborer Frank Viola.
These rumors originated in the year 2000. Unfortunately, when I caught wind of them in 2002, I regrettably spread them, not knowing all the facts. At that time, I had written an email alleging the rumors. That email made its way onto a website, but my name doesn’t appear in the email. Sadly, a number of years later, a known abuser (Jim Wright) found my email and then exaggerated the rumors to outrageous proportions.
I recanted that email after I first wrote it, but my recantation didn’t spread like the false rumors did. I communicated my recanting of the information to Wright over an email, but he blatantly ignored it, and intentionally spread the rumors along with adding a great of fabrications to them. This was appalling and beyond despicable.
Here is what took place. In the year 2000, well before Frank became published with Tyndale or his ministry was known, he committed an indiscretion with a consenting adult. The sin (as he called it) was completely dealt with at the time. Frank fully confessed and repented that same year to the people affected. I along with others witnessed him make apologies to everyone who was part of a small home group he had a relationship with at the time.
Frank also submitted to a leadership team from another church in North Florida where he relocated for a period of years. The leaders there knew him. Everyone I’ve spoken with whom Frank confessed and asked forgiveness from forgave him at that time. Since then, the matter has been under the blood of Christ and the case closed in heaven and on earth.
Contrary to the false rumors spread by Wright, there was no adultery, there was no “predation” or patterns, there was no underage teen involved, there was no crime committed, there was no excommunication, and there was no “cover up,” and a divorce didn’t occur as a result of it. Other rumors Wright concocted about divorce alimony, “multiple victims,” so-called “eyewitnesses,” that he was 40 when it happened, and other wild accusations attempting to paint Frank as a combination of Ted Bundy, Don Juan, and Charles Manson who eats babies for breakfast are not only heinous, but they are completely false. All of these were inventions by Wright, a man who is known for intentionally lying.
Also contrary to Wright’s smears, Frank was never fired from his job (he’s never been fired from any job he’s ever held), he was never disfellowshipped from any church either. He has never been part of a clergy and has never been a pastor at any time. And the accusation of being a “cult leader” is laughable. I’ve been to two small home groups where Frank was involved, I knew the people in them, and they were hardly a cult.
Both Frank and I and our wives have a good relationship with many of the people in these two home groups. Including the one where the false rumors were related to from the year 2000. In fact, some of those same people in that group have discounted the false rumors about Frank and the church. (They are part of the excommunication letter warning the body of Christ about Jim Wright signed by 35 leaders).
The rumors accusing Frank of terrorism (in league with President Obama) are equally outrageous and equally false. All of these charges are fake news at its worst.
Regarding Mr. Edwards, Frank only spent a few years with him and completely left his circle in 2004, never to return.
Wright, who is responsible for creating these vile rumors and spreading them, has no relationship with Frank and has never met him. The two men have never even spoken over the phone. Wright wasn’t involved in the home groups I mentioned in the year 2000 or any later. He has zero firsthand knowledge about anything he’s alleged. He’s also lied about me, falsely alleging that I was “paid off” to expose him and call out his sin. He has smeared Bart Breen, who has also exposed his abusive history and deception.
Wright’s smear campaign was fully debunked in 2013, and he has had no credibility left after his history of deception and abuse was publicly exposed. (Wright has been excommunicated on four previous occasions for abusive behavior.)
To use an analogy, a shove in the schoolyard playground that took place two decades ago was deliberately turned into multiple serial killings! All in an effort to destroy credible people’s reputation by a single individual.
Here’s the bottom line. I’ve known Frank Viola since 1996, and for over 10 years we have co-worked together. He is a man of high integrity, he is uncommonly generous, and I fully endorse him and his work. Those who know Frank personally feel the same way.
Frank’s book Pagan Christianity is the main source of hatred for his detractors. They wish to discredit the book and the rest of his work, so they’ve resorted to personal smears and character assassination.
But as Woodrow Wilson said, “If you want to create enemies, try to change something.” And as Jesus Himself said, “Beware when all men speak well of you.” We are aware of the horrible rumors that were spread about Jesus and Paul in their own day.
It is tragic that people who proclaim to be Christians will fabricate reprehensible stories about fellow Christians in an attempt to destroy their character out of pride, jealousy, fear, or hatred. But it’s just as tragic that some Christians will believe the slander, never question it, and never go directly to the person being attacked to inquire.
Matthew 7:12 is violated just as much among professing Christians as it is in the world.
As a sex abuse advocate and an advocate against church abuse for decades, I find it despicable that some so-called “Christians” will be quick to believe the worst about other people instead of going to those people directly.
Especially those who are known for standing against abuse, as Frank’s work is known for. Such false accusations only hurt the cause of protecting the innocent. To slander and defame someone is just another form of abuse. It not only hurts the individual being slandered, but it also hurts their families.
It doesn’t matter to me if someone likes or dislikes Frank’s books. If you disagree with what he’s written, that’s fine. But that’s completely different from accepting outlandish lies about him, and spreading them.
The Bible is clear that we are always to think the best of others, just as we want for ourselves, and never to entertain gossip and slander. If we have a concern about someone, Scripture exhorts us to go directly to that person with our concerns as we would want the same (Matthew 7:12). Unlike many authors today, Frank is completely accessible and so am I.
In my years of working with victims of sexual abuse and church abuse, I’ve discovered first hand that our world is full of people – even “religious” people – who are abusers who prey on the innocent. But Frank isn’t one of them. On the contrary, Mr. Wright has a long history of abuse, even against his own family.
I sincerely hope this note puts these vile rumors to rest once and for all to anyone who has caught wind of them.
Sincerely,
Jon Zens / Sept. 2013
Updated 2024
From the Endorsement by the Dales
“We are deeply saddened by the division and disrepute that Jim Wright has recently brought on the body of Christ through his accusations against Frank. We stand with Frank. We value his contributions to the body of Christ and are proud to call him our friend.”
Tony and Felicity
* In 2015, Frank co-authored a book with leading sex abuse advocate Mary DeMuth. The two authors are friends and support each other. If the accusations by Wright where true, the book would have never been written nor would the authors be friends.
How to Deal with a Slanderer According to the Bible
The Scripture is clear that slander is just as serious as a sin as the other works of the flesh listed in the New Testament (murder, adultery, etc.) – all of which bar one from inheriting the kingdom of God if not repented of (see Galatians 5:19-21; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
Also, to spread slander or provide a venue for it is to participate in this sin.
Thus we are writing this letter with heavy hearts to warn the body of Christ about Jim Wright in the spirit of Matthew 18:15-17, Titus 3:10, and Romans 16:17.
It is possible that one of you will become the next victim of Wright’s consistent pattern of operating as a smear merchant.
Please understand that we have only touched the tip of the iceberg in the amount of falsehoods and distortions that Jim Wright has been spreading and has been confronted about. If we detailed them all, this would be an incredibly long letter.
Social media experts often say, “don’t feed the trolls. It only keeps them going and makes them look credible.” (A troll is someone who uses the Internet to stir up trouble, spread gossip and slander, and defame people.)
As one person remarked who observed Wright make sordid allegations on a Facebook group, a person stops performing when he has no audience.
In the Spirit of Jesus Christ, therefore, we beseech all of God’s people to not give Jim Wright an audience for his persistent lies against members of the body of Christ. Many people have defriended him from Facebook because they are tired of being poisoned by his slander against others.
Until Jim Wright repents and willingly removes his slanderous blog posts and websites, we will leave this warning up. We also will not give him an ear to his slander nor will we engage him. We encourage you to do the same as Scripture instructs:
“Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them.” Titus 3:10
“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned [love], and avoid them.” Romans 16:17
If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. Matthew 18:15-17
“There are six things the LORD hates – no, seven things he detests . . . a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.” Proverbs 6:16,19
“Malign no one” (NASB); “speak evil of no one” (KJV); “slander no one” (NIV). Titus 3:2
Sincerely in Christ,
Jon Zens
Dotty Zens
Hal Miller
Milt Rodriguez
Mary Rodriguez
Ross Rohde
Keith Giles
Ken Eastburn
The following links provide further information:
Warning Letter Against Jim Wright’s Outrageous Sex Abuse Lies Signed by Over 35 Christian Leaders
Jim Wright – Sexual Abuse Accuser Banned from Facebook Groups
Is Jim Wright Qualified to be an Elder?
Related:
Don’t Believe Everything You Read or Hear
5 Reasons to Unfriend Someone on Facebook & Unfollow Them on Twitter
If after reading this article and the information in the above links, you still have questions about Wright’s absurd attacks which began in 2012, write to TheDeeperJourney@gmail.com
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