Rick Alan Ross | |
|---|---|
 Ross in 2014 | |
| Born | 1952 (age 72–73) Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Deprogrammer, cult specialist, founder and executive director of the Cult Education Institute |
| Website | culteducation |
Rick Alan Ross (born 1952) is an Americandeprogrammer,cult specialist, and founder and executive director of the nonprofitCult Education Institute.[1] He frequently appears in the news and other media discussing groups some consider cults.[2][3] Ross has intervened in more than 500 deprogramming cases in various countries.[4][5]
Ross faced criminal charges ofunlawful imprisonment over a 1991 forcible deprogramming ofUnited Pentecostal Church International memberJason Scott; a jury acquitted him at trial. In 1995, a civil lawsuit filed by Scott resulted in a multimillion-dollar judgement against Ross and his co-defendants. Later, Ross and Scott reached a settlement in which Ross agreed to pay Scott US$5,000 and provide 200 hours of professional services at no charge.
Ross was the only deprogrammer to work with members of theBranch Davidians prior to theWaco siege; some scholars later criticized his involvement with the siege.[6][7]
Ross was born in 1952 inCleveland, Ohio, and moved toPhoenix, Arizona in 1956. His mother worked for theJewish Community Center and his father was aplumber.[8] He was raised and went to school inArizona with the exception of one year that he was sent to theCamden Military Academy inSouth Carolina. He graduated fromPhoenix Union High School in 1971.[9]
After high school, Ross worked for two years at a finance company and at a bank. In his twenties, during a period of unemployment, he got into legal trouble. In 1974, he was charged, along with a friend, for the attemptedburglary of a model home. He pleaded guilty totrespassing and was sentenced toprobation.[10][8] In 1975, he was charged withgrand theft, again with a friend, forembezzling over $50,000 worth of jewelry from a shop where the friend worked. All the stolen items were returned to the store; he pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to four more years of probation, which was terminated early.[10][11] While he was on probation, he worked for a cousin's car salvage business.[8] During an interview with theNew YorkDaily News in 2004, Ross said, "I was young and foolish and made mistakes that I deeply regret. I did whatever the court required, completed my probation in 1979, and the guilty verdicts were vacated in 1983. I have gone on with my life and never again got in that kind of trouble."[12]
Ross became concerned about extremist organizations in 1982 when he learned that a fringe religious group had encouraged missionaries to become employees at his grandmother's nursing home where they were targeting elderly residents[13] for conversion toMessianic Judaism.[10] According to Ross, the missionaries were threateningJewish residents, many of whom had survivedpersecution in Europe, that they would burn inhell if they did not convert.[11] Ross told this to the home's director and the local Jewish community and campaigned to have the group's activities stopped.[14][10]
Following the incident at his grandmother's nursing home, Ross continued his involvement in the organized Jewish community and worked with theJewish Federation of Greater Phoenix to write a brochure on thecult phenomenon in Arizona.[15][16] This led theUnion for Reform Judaism to appoint Ross to two national committees focused on cults and inter-religious affairs[14] and he also volunteered as a lecturer and researcher for the denomination.[8]
In 1983, Ross started working for Jewish Family and Children's Services (JFCS) in Phoenix as the coordinator for the Jewish Prisoners Program, which he founded.[14] His work in the prison system covered social services for Jewish inmates, advocating for their religious rights, and providing education regardinghate groups.[11][17] In addition, he chaired the Coalition of Jewish Prisoners Programs, theumbrella organization for an international group of human services agencies providing assistance to Jewish inmates and their families.[17] He also served on the religious advisory committee for theArizona Department of Corrections and was later elected as its chairman.[18] From his work in the prison system, Ross discovered that prisoners were a prime target for cult groups and through his role on the religious advisory committee, he helped develop a policy on proselytizing to inmates.[14] He also worked for Phoenix Bureau of Jewish Education, designing a curriculum and teaching.[9]
In 1986, Ross left JFCS to become a full-time private consultant anddeprogrammer, a role which has been widely criticized.[9][8][a] Despite involving himself in many coercive interventions against individuals involved innew religious movements, Ross has no education or credentials in religion and no formal training in counselling or psychology.[21][22] Ross worked as a deprogrammer with theCult Awareness Network (CAN).[23]
In 1989, theCBS television program48 Hours covered Ross's deprogramming of a 14-year-old boy, Aaron Paron, a member of thePotter's House Christian Fellowship.[24][25] According to his mother, when she distanced herself from the church, Aaron began viewing her as "possessed by thedevil"; he becamesuicidal and ran away from home, refusing to leave the organization.[25][26] Aaron's mother had made multiple calls to the police and, prior to filming, Potter's House entered into an agreement that they would not have contact with or harbor the minor, entice him away from his mother, attempt to influence his behavior, or take any action that would interfere with his mother's parental rights.[25] The program focused on Ross's efforts to persuade the boy to view Potter's House as "a destructiveBible-based group" which took control of its members' lives. According to a review inThe New York Times, the 48-hour intervention apparently persuaded Aaron that his mother was not possessed by the Devil and that Potter's House was not what it seemed. In a closing scene filmed three weeks later, Aaron's psychologist assured his mother that Aaron was "back in the land of the living now".[24]
In 1987, Ross deprogrammed two former members of theBranch Davidians inupstate New York, and in 1988 began receiving calls about the Davidian group led byDavid Koresh inWaco, Texas.[10][27] Ross was the only deprogrammer to work with Branch Davidian members prior to the 1993siege at Waco.[28] TheCBS television network hired Ross as an on-scene analyst for their coverage of the Waco siege and he was consulted by theFederal Bureau of Investigation as well.[5][10]
Criticism of government agencies' involvement with Ross has come fromNancy Ammerman, a professor ofsociology of religion, who cited FBI interview notes which stated Ross "has a personal hatred for all religious cults". She further stated theBureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and FBI did rely on Ross when he recommended that agents "attempt to publicly humiliate Koresh, hoping to drive a wedge between him and his followers".[6] Otherscholars of religion also criticized Ross' involvement.[27][6][7]
Ross facedunlawful imprisonment charges over a 1991 forcibledeprogramming ofUnited Pentecostal Church International memberJason Scott, whose mother was referred to Ross by the CAN.[29] Ross was acquitted of these charges by the jury at trial.[30][29]
Scott later filed a civil suit against Ross, two of his associates and CAN in federal court. In September 1995, a nine-member jury unanimously held the defendants liable forconspiracy to deprive Scott of hiscivil rights andreligious liberties. In addition, the jury held that Ross and his associates (but not CAN) "intentionally or recklessly acted in a way so outrageous in character and so extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency and to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community." The case resulted in an award of $875,000 incompensatory damages andpunitive damages in the amount of $5 million against Ross, $1M against CAN, and $250,000 against each of Ross's two other co-defendants. The casebankrupted the CAN, and a coalition of groups that were attacked by the CAN bought its assets, and ran anew version of the CAN which become active inreligious freedom causes.[31][32][33] According toEugene Gallagher, the Scott case marked a watershed fornon-traditional religions in North America.[32][34]
Scott later reconciled with his mother, who had originally hired Ross to deprogram him. Scott terminated his lawyer,Kendrick Moxon, a prominentScientologist attorney,[35] and was persuaded by his mother to settle with Ross. Under the terms of the settlement, the two agreed that Ross would pay Scott $5,000 and provide 200 hours of his professional services.[36] The settlement between Scott and Ross was leaked to theWashington Post, which reportedly angered Scott.[36] Graham Berry, his new attorney, said that "it would be a mistake to assume that Scott's decision to make use of Ross' time was a vindication of Ross or his deprogramming methods", and refused to say what services Ross would supply under the agreement.[36]According to the bookAmerican Countercultures, Ross and others forwarded the notion that charismatic leaders were able tobrainwash college-aged youths, and that such cases were in need of forcible removal from thecult environment and deprogramming.[37] In a book that Ross self-published in 2014, he wrote that after the Scott case he stopped involuntary deprogramming work with adults,[38]: 196 advising against such interventions with adults because of the risk of legal consequences.[38]: xiv
Ross started a website with his archives in 1996.[1] Launched under the name "Rick A. Ross Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups, and Movements", and later renamed "Cult Education Institute", it displayed material on controversial groups and movements and their leaders, includingCharles Manson,Jim Jones,David Koresh, as well as theWestboro Baptist Church on which Ross had been collecting data since 1993.[1] Content from the website and Ross' opinion surrounding it has been cited in books such asAndrew Breitbart andMark Ebner'sHollywood, Interrupted in which Ross is quoted as forwarding the notion thatHollywood and theentertainment industry are rife with connections to controversial groups, and that celebrities as role models may influence people by their endorsement of such groups.[39] According to Ann E. Robertson, the Institute "is an unusual source of considerable information about rather obscure groups".[40]
By 2004, Ross had handled more than 350 deprogramming cases in various countries[8] and testified as anexpert witness in several court cases.[8][41][42] He has also contributed to a number of books, including a foreword to Tim Madigan'sSee No Evil[43] and a chapter to Roman Espejo'sCults: Opposing Viewpoints.[44]
In 2004, after Ross obtained copies ofNXIVM's training manuals from a former participant who had signed a nondisclosure agreement with NXIVM, Ross posted some content from the manuals along with his critiques on his website. For publishing parts of their manuals, NXIVM sued Ross's Cult Education Institute forcopyright infringement. InNXIVM Corp. v. Ross Institute, the use of the material for critique was ruledtransformative and thereforefair use.[45] In 2019, Ross testified in the racketeering, sex trafficking, forced labor and conspiracy trial of NXIVM's leaderKeith Raniere as a cult expert who had spent years dealing with NXIVM, where Ross stated that NXIVM's teachings were not self-help but rather acult of personality.[46]
In June 2004,Landmark Education filed a 1 million dollar lawsuit against the institute, alleging that postings on its websites which characterized Landmark as a cultish organization that brainwashed their clients damaged Landmark's product.[3] Landmark filed to dismiss its own lawsuitwith prejudice, in December 2005, purportedly on the grounds of a material change incase law after the publication of an opinion in another case,Donato v. Moldow, regarding theCommunications Decency Act of 1996, even though Ross wanted to continue the case in order to further investigate Landmark's materials and their history of suing critics.[3] Ross stated that he does not see Landmark as a cult because they have no individual leader, but he considers them harmful because subjects are harassed and intimidated, causing potentially unsafe levels of stress.[3]
The Cult Education Institute has its ownYouTube channel, since January 2015, with over 70 videos and 25,000 subscribers as of 2023.[update][47] Ross was part of the creative team atUbisoft for the 2018 video gameFar Cry 5, involving a fictionaldoomsday cult.[48][49] Ross has been interviewed for various documentaries on cults and other allegedly exploitative organizations, including:The Vow, season 1, episode 6, "Honesty & Disclosure" (2020,HBO), aboutCatherine Oxenberg and theNXIVM cult;[50]Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult (2020,Starz), about the same;[2]The Rise and Fall ofLuLaRoe (2021,Discovery+), which examined a controversialmulti-level marketing company;[51][52] and a 2021 video piece for the YouTube channel of American magazineVanity Fair, on cults in films and television.[53]
In 2013, the organization was renamed from Rick A. Ross Institute to Cult Education Institute, and the domain name rickross.com was retired.[54]
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