Frank Viola:
Numerous witnesses, who know you, have confirmed your history of using your position of leadership and influence to sexually groom and exploit young women.
Your own former church, who knew you, issued public warnings after you sexually exploited a teenager over many months, who was half your age and had been your high school student.
Your first wife, who knew you, divorced you for these and other reasons.
Mr. Viola: Those are “facts”, not “slander”.
Until you stop the sanctimonious blogs, cover up and deception – and openly confess and repent – you remain a danger to all.
Crossroad Junction 
This is troubling, partly because I like Frank’s blogs and his books. They have been helpful in my spiritual growth. It’s disappointing to hear about these allegations. I also like this blog, Crossroad Junction, although I’ve only been a subscriber for a short period.
Frank’s blog is being called sanctimonious. Is that correct or fair? Webster’s defines sanctimonious as “hypocritically pious or devout”. Is that a fair description of his blog content?
I wish this would get resolved.
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Thanks for your comment, TC. See my response to Mark, below, regarding the “sanctimonious” issue concerning Frank Viola’s blog.
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What, exactly, does Frank need to repent of here that he has not already repented of? Who is it that is standing in judgment of his past alleged sins? Why are YOU judging this man’s sins, openly proclaiming past mistakes which have already been repented of to God and the offended people? Why are you placing yourself in God’s place to judge Frank Viola when God Himself has not only forgiven the man, but has chosen to remember his sins no more? I have read Frank’s books, listened to his recordings and met the man in person and I fail to see this “unrepentant sinner” you are railing against. You are causing discord and division in the body of Christ which is what the enemy is all about – not Christ. Perhaps it is YOU who needs to repent and seek restoration here.
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Mark, you and I must live on different planets. A man who uses his leadership position in the church to sexually exploit a teenager over many months, then flees that church rather than confess and repent, and then engages is a vicious campaign behind the scenes to intimidate and silence anyone – including his multiple victims – who might bear testimony against him and to this day DENIES his sin…
Such a man is not fit to be a leader in the Body of Christ or to continue promoting himself as a “church planter” and “apostolic” worker who continues to seek invitations to visit yet more churches where there are yet more vulnerable, potential victims.
And we are not talking old stuff here.
Just look at his recent blog, where he again refuses to address the findings and warnings issued against him by his former church in Brandon, Florida. Instead, he tries to make a joke out of it and then has the audacity to imply that it was another man who sexually abused those teenagers. In fact, he even posts that other man’s picture and identifying information – thus claiming that another man must be the one who is culpable for Frank Viola’s own sins. See http://frankviola.org/2013/04/25/threeviolas/.
Mark, I can assure you:
The Brandon church, and the many witnesses who came forward from that church, know who the real Frank Viola is.
The multiple additional witnesses and victims who have shared their stories with us, and confirmed that Frank Viola has sexually abused multiple teenagers, also know who the real Frank Viola is.
Those witnesses and victims who have been subjected to a vicious campaign of lies, threats and intimidation (which is the worst I’ve ever seen in the many years that we’ve worked to help abuse victims and address the problem of sexual predation by church leaders) over the last three months to try to silence them, know who the real Frank Viola is.
His recent blog confirms that he remains a danger to others. It is not only appropriate, but necessary under the command given to us in 1 Tim. 5:19-21, to continue alerting others to the findings and warnings – properly issued – by his own former church about his history of abuse and sexual exploitation.
True repentance is only confirmed by showing evidence of repentance. Frank Viola’s recent blog of April 25th does not show evidence of repentance. Rather, it shows the typical dismissive denial, blame shifting, and attempt to wrap himself in the mantle of victimhood, which is common with unrepentant sexual predators.
As I state in the meme above, we’re still waiting for a substantive reply from Frank Viola to this prior letter – which also addresses in more detail the questions you raise:
Finally, Mark, I have no doubt you find Frank Viola to be very personable, charming, inspiring and convincing. But then again, most of his victims, at least initially, did too.
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Thank you Jim for your investigations. You have done a tremendous job, unearthing all this material on Nathansvoice.org. In order to help the victim of abuses and, it should be noticed, help abusers to get out of the guilt produced by their faults. Frank usually presents guilt as more powerful than love to bring a Human being into action.
May I introduce Myself: Edmond Mfaboum from France. I’ve struggled to make Viola’s books available in French by translating some of them by the way.
I reached your web site after asking the Almighty to give me more information on that inspiring and convincing author, Frank Viola. A few days ago, I watched a small video posted on Frank’s web site, displaying his desk. May be I found the place too clean, too neat to be neighbouring a dwelling place for a wife and children. At that time, I had no information on the marital status of Frank Viola and found bizarre to never see it mentioned anywhere, since he appears on numerous conferences and interviews.
Today, I have the information that the Frank Viola who worked for years with Gene Edwards is the same one who divorced his wife Susan in 2002. Poor Shoshana… Yeshua, help me!
Now, I understand the very reason of that 04/25/2013 paper on the right and the wrong Frank Viola on his web site. Hint: he called for God’s testimony for the baseball player, and why he refrained from doing the same for the ear-ring-bearing Frank Viola? Bizarre!
I moreover understand the 05/22/2013 paper on “Religious Jealousy: The Unspoken Root Behind Hatred, Slander & Murder”…
Well, Jim, your outstanding work is very useful. The problem with Frank Viola is that he uses an email filter, Jared Patel, and I think it won’t be easy to bring him to the humble feelings you want him to display, since there are victims who were forced to silence for years!
Do you possess any copy of “Forbidden Affection”?
As I presented my astonishment to my Isha, I couldn’t help noticing that the May 26 2000 act of madness with that ex-student of his was a time bomb in his biography. May he understands that it is always time to show brokenness when souls are affected by sin. Just remind his blog on “the unbroken christian”…
Stay blessed
in Yeshua,
edmond a.k.a. “ntjufen”
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I think you should not be so selective about the responses you post. Very disappointed you will not post those things that point out the flaws in your satanic pursuit of a brother. There is NO condemnation for those in Christ Jesus from the Father – where does YOUR condemnation come from???
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Hi Jim
I’m sorry to insist on this detail: “Do you possess any copy of “Forbidden Affection”?”
The book is unavailable. And is part of the truth on a very influential man: Frank Viola. I have witnessed in my own life the tremendous power of guilt and you’re doing a great job, letting people know the truth and the victims being considered and cured of the outrage and forced silence. Because of fame!
I can understand, and I think, you too do, the indignation of those defending Frank. But Yeshua is the truth. And where there is no truth, or half truth, Yeshua isn’t there.
Be strong and blessed in Yeshua
ntjufen
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According to folks involved with his former church at the time, Frank Viola wrote Forbidden Affection in the context of his attraction and involvement with one particular teenager over many months. The police finally found him alone with her in a motel room on May 26, 2000.
Although she had been his student at the Brandon High School where he was then a teacher, and was in the church over which Mr. Viola was claiming to be the apostolic “worker”, she was 19 when the police finally found them together in the motel. Because of her age at that time, no charges were filed – although his wife learned of it.
Frank ended up leaving his teaching position shortly after that event became public knowledge in 2002 – and actually demanded alimony from his ex-wife because he said he was no longer employable in that community as talk of his “adultery” spread.
Folks from back then also claim that Frank Viola initially tried to explain away his trysts with that teenager, which went on for many months, by saying she was only helping him write that book and they would go to private places where there were no distractions. However, that could not have been true at the time of the motel incident, because the book was published in January 2000 (five months earlier). As far as I know, Frank is still using that lie in private with folks – who don’t know better because Frank avoids saying anything in public where others who do know can rebut any deception.
It appears that Frank Viola has made sure there are no copies of that book available for purchase – even from used book dealers on the Internet. Interestingly, it is easy to find copies of his other earlier books, but not Forbidden Affection. I believe this is yet another case of him trying to re-invent himself as he covers up and seeks to obscure his history of seeking out and exploiting young women half his age – while married and also claiming to be a church leader.
I have tried and tried to find a copy of that book, but there are none to be found.
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Thank’s a lot, Brother Jim.
All the stuff on my “hero” Frank Viola helps render him more human. And if the allegations of the folks of Brandon on what I’ve called a “time bomb in his biography” are real, then, it’s time for Frank to get back to his victims and ask for forgiveness, on all the indictments that could be considered spiritual Infantile Disorders.
Frank Viola’s speech today is very convincing, yet torpedoing the basement of institutional church which failed quite everywhere. I sometimes put Viola on a balance with D. Bonhoeffer, finding that Frank goes further than Dietrich who had very revolutionary insights, but failed to actually “live” them..
I endorse your initiative to bring Frank Viola, whom, I guess, you love as a brother, to be faithfull to the beautiful ideas he proclaims. Being true, assuming the past, begging for forgiveness won’t decrease his potential to obey YHWH and incite others to be faithfull.
The facts you have unearthed show a zealous and awkward person, hoodwinked by his ego that inflated with the role of “apostolic worker” shaped by his then guru Gene Edwards.
Is there any “role play” in the story of Jamie and Candice he narrates in From Eternity to Here?? I’m puzzled.
It is obvious that the grooming and forbidden knowledge on the Brandon episode will eventually come to an end.
Your call to Frank Viola to come clean is, in my opinion, the best way to show that Our Lord shines because we are/have darkness.
I’ll continue to track a copy of “Fordidden Affection”. Why on earth a lover of romances would make sure his must on written personal romance is unavailable today?
Laying low won’t make things easier for Frank anyway. So, the message is for those numerous aficionados of Frank Viola: would Naaman be credible narrating his story with a distorted version alleging that he “only” suffered a trivial skin disease? No. It was leprosy. And he was bestowed a free healing. Even more so for a soul redeemed by the blood of the Lamb…
Come on Frank, what weight your strong brand image (for mortals) compared to your name written in the Book of Life (of the Lamb)?
Blessings
ntjufen
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Jim,
Thanks for this. I had been debating whether it was ethical in a situation where a public figure is holding themselves forth as an authoritative figure to comment on their divorce proceedings and make speculations as to situations of abuse based upon them.
Now that you’ve shown me that it’s a good thing to do, I think I’ll let others know about another blogger and claimed organic leader whose divorce proceedings include multiple court documented instances of a lack of integrity and probably spiritual abuse.
I appreciate the model you’ve provided and hope others will appreciate the necessary information that must come out.
Best Regards,
Bart Breen
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Bart Breen, I’m not sure what’s stopping you from more attack by innuendo. After all, that’s what you’ve been doing all along as the person Frank Viola explicitly designated to respond on his behalf.
This is just more of the same – rather than deal with the facts of Frank Viola’s history of sexual predation and abuse, threaten those who dare warn others unless they agree to be silenced.
You did it in your prior letter back in May (see https://crossroadjunction.com/2013/05/15/jon-zens-and-frank-viola/), then carried through with some really wacko blogs and publishing a really wacko letter of attack, and now you’re trying threat and intimidation again.
It didn’t work then, so why do you think it will work now? In fact, it has only served to draw attention to the very thing you’re trying to hide and cover up.
Bart, the only response by you and Frank Viola (through you) to date has been to threaten, intimidate and lie about others.
I even have copies of correspondence from you to others where you offer to promote and provide favorable reviews for their books and blogs if they remove all references to such sexual abuse.
I guess if threats don’t work, why not try cover up through a little bribery, huh?
When will the attempted cover up stop, and when will we see true confession and repentance?
Be careful, Bart. I am not so hesitant about pursuing legal remedies for slander and libel – especially when the lies and innuendo are done to cover up true abuse that’s been confirmed by many witnesses.
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Thank you. This is a firm reminderthat even best are broken and feeble human beings(perhaps even more broken. I’ve heard somewhere that the most succesful people have psychopathic and sociopathic traits in them). In fact, i have witnessed personally the fall od two of the biggest mentors in my life. A very popular pastor in fort lauderdale had to step down due to sexual sins and Steve LaVallee, a mentor of mine took hus own life due to sexual scandals. I hope that one day, we will realize that sexual addiction is very reall thing and requires the upmost attention along with any other drugs. I believe your claim on Frank Viola is possible, only because I have witnessed personally many powerful people fall. I do not kniw if this ia the best way to pursue this claim. However, I cannot join in on accusing him because of lack of evidence.
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I only recall that the last time met with the Brandon Fellowship a sweet innocent blond teen was given a chance to briefly speak about how interested and intrigued she was about Frank Viola’s teaching. Shortly after that I left attending the fellowship because I live in Tampa . But the one thing that registered in my mind was the compelling influence Frank had on this student of his from Brandon High and excited this young woman was about learning more about Christianity. But this was very early in the 1990s or so. Flesh is flesh , and we know from the likes of Jimmy Swaggart that things like this can occur. I believe that people of a moral defect of this nature must repent and be denied any further post in the church for the safety of our young naive children. But as Paul indicated not to be cut off from the fellowship of the brethren. But let’s face it –what’s done is done.
In this digital age one CAN reinvent oneself with followers who consider such matters “water under the bridge. I read his very informative blog with this “remember Frank and Susan and their two lovely children, It causes my heart to ache because i want all of these claims top be untrue of a man I admired.
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