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Revision as of 19:07, 22 July 2005 by 67.134.82.77 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Rick Ross (born November 1952) is an internationally known cult expert often quoted in the media within the United States and around the world. He maintains what is now one of the largest databases accessible through the Internet regarding cults, controversial groups and new religious movements, and related research.
Ross once called a “cult deprogrammer” describes himself today as a "cult intervention specialist." Britain's FHM magazine named Rick Ross "America's number one cult buster." Time Magazine referred to him as “a veteran cult watcher."
Life
Rick Ross was born in November of 1952 in Cleveland, Ohio. His family moved to Arizona when he was a child. Ross’ formal education extended through high school, which he completed in 1971.
He was arrested for two non-violent crimes committed in 1974 and 1975. On April 2, 1976, Ross was found guilty of conspiracy, 2nd degree, to commit grand theft, a felony, and was sentenced to four years probation and a fine of $1,100. Maricopa County, Arizona Superior Court vacated judgment and restored Ross' civil rights in 1983.
Ross' involvement with cults started in 1982, when a controversial religious group infiltrated the Jewish nursing home in Arizona where his grandmother was a resident. Working with the director of the facility and the local Jewish community, Ross stopped their involvement. This led to work with the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, and an appointment to two national committees by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC), which focused on cults and interreligious affairs. Ross also represented the Jewish community on the Religious Advisory Committee to the Arizona Department of Corrections and was later elected its chairman. He also served as the chairman of the International Coalition of Jewish Prisoners Programs sponsored by B'nai Brith in Washington D.C. Ross' work within the prison system included inmate religious rights and educational efforts regarding hate groups. During the 1980s Ross was a member of the professional staff of Jewish Family and Children's Service (JFCS) and the Bureau of Jewish Education (BJE) in Phoenix, Arizona.
In 1986 Ross left JFCS and the BJE to become a full-time private consultant, lecturer and cult intervention specialist. In the following years he was involved in both voluntary and involuntary deprogramming, at the request of the families of the cult members.
In 1996 Ross posted a statement through his Web site that he no longer advocates involuntary interventions for adults, preferring instead voluntary "exit counseling."
Ross' resume lists lectures at Rutgers University, Penn University of Pennsylvania, Dickinson College, Baylor University, the University of Chicago, Carnegie Mellon University and Arizona State University. He has been a paid consultant for the television networks CBS, CBC and Nippon of Japan and retained as a technical consultant by Miramax/Disney for the Jane Campion film Holy Smoke. He has been qualified and accepted as an expert witness in eight states and has been deposed and/or submitted affidavits as an expert in an additional five states.
In 1996, Ross started an Internet-accessed database, which is widely cited by the media as a resource for information about controversial groups and movements, some of which have been called "cults." The website's FAQ takes care to clarify that not all new religious movements are cults (nor all cults religious), nor all cults necessarily unsafe and/or destructive. Ross moved to New Jersey in 2001 and two years later he founded the ""Rick A. Ross Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults and Controversial Groups"" a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization located in New Jersey. Its stated mission is "public education and research," largely done through Ross' website.
Jason Scott case
In 1990, Ross and others were retained by Kathy Tonkin the mother an 18-year-old member of the Life Tabernacle Church, affiliated with the United Pentecostal Church International to engage in an involuntary deprogramming of her son Jason Scott. Ms. Tonkin, had been a member of the church, but had left due to concerns about the means the church used to keep members in line, their focus on material donations to the church, and a relationship between an elder church member and one of her two minor sons, Jason's younger brothers. After leaving the church herself, and on the suggestion of the Cult Awareness Network (CAN), whom she called, she asked Ross to assist her in the involuntary deprogramming of her two minor sons. After speaking with Ross, the two minors chose to leave the church.
Tonkin then made an attempt, again with the help of Ross, to provide a similar intervention for Jason in 1991. This attempt was unsuccessful, and criminal charges were brought against Ross and two others for unlawful imprisonment of Jason during the deprogramming, charges that were filed, dropped, and then re-filed two years later. The trial ended in acquittal for Ross in 1994, but a civil suit was filed in 1995, with long-time counsel for the Church of Scientology Kendrick Moxon representing Jason Scott. The jury in that second trial held Ross liable for conspiracy to deprive Scott of his civil rights. The suit ended in Ross and the Cult Awareness Network being ordered to pay large judgments:
The jury awarded Jason Scott $875,000 in compensatory damages and punitive damages in the amount of $1,000,000 against CAN, $2,500,000 against deprogrammer Rick Ross, and $250,000 each against Ross’ two accomplices.
The suit pushed Ross into bankruptcy, from which he later emerged, and along with over 50 similar suits (most of them brought by Moxon) pushed CAN into bankruptcy, where its name, its logo and its files were considered assets, assets then purchased by the Church of Scientology.
In December 1996, Scott reconciled with his mother and settled with Ross for $5,000, and for 200 hours of Ross' services "as an expert consultant and intervention specialist". Moxon was fired the next day and Scott then retained long-time Church of Scientology opponent Graham Berry as his lawyer instead. Moxon, who had argued in the case that Ross and associates had hindered a competent adult's freedom to make his own religious decisions, immediately filed court papers seeking to appoint a guardian for Scott, whom he called "incapacitated", and rescind the settlement. That effort failed.
Ross "deprogrammed" two Waco Branch Davidians, contributed to a series on the group in the local newspaper and was consulted by the BATF before the ill fated raid on the group's compound. The FBI during the Waco standoff, according to a Justice Department Report also interviewed him at his own request.
Groups called “cults” and their academic apologists have often criticized Ross for his lack of academic credentials and cited his 30-year-old criminal record to discredit him, which predates both his work regarding cults and deprogramming activities.
Branch Davidians
Ross deprogrammed two Branch Davidians, one prior to the raid at Waco, Texas. Prior to the raid the BATF consulted him. During the subsequent standoff the FBI interviewed him. He was a source for a series on the group in the Waco Tribune Herald.
The Report to the Deputy Attorney General on the Events at Waco, Texas (February 28 to April 19, 1993) states that:
- The FBI interviewed Ross only at Ross' request, and politely declined his unsolicited offers of assistance throughout the standoff. The FBI treated the information Ross supplied as it would any other unsolicited information received from the public: it evaluated the credibility of the information and treated it accordingly.
Nancy Ammerman, an academic who has been called a “cult apologist,” directly contradicted the FBI denial that they did not consult Ross and instead insisted they relied on him too much. In her official report to the Justice Department Ammerman wrote:
- In late March, Ross recommended that agents attempt to humiliate Koresh, hoping to drive a wedge between him and his followers. While Ross' suggestions may not have been followed to the letter, FBI agents apparently believed that their attempts to embarrass Koresh (talking about his inconsistencies, lack of education, failures as a prophet, and the like) would produce the kind of internal dissension Ross predicted. Because Ross had been successful in using such tactics on isolated and beleaguered members during deprogramming, he must have assumed that they would work en masse. Any student of group psychology could have dispelled that misapprehension. But the FBI was evidently listening more closely to these deprogramming-related strategies than to the counsel of scholars who might have explained the dynamics of a group under siege.
Ammerman, who has been featured as an expert within Scientology’s “Freedom Magazine,” claimed that the FBI interview transcripts on the Waco tragedy include the note that " has a personal hatred for all religious cults" and would aid law enforcement in an attempt to "destroy a cult". Ross denies having talked about destroying a cult.
Carol Moore, the controversial author of "The Massacre Of The Branch Davidians A Study Of Government Violations Of Rights, Excessive Force And Cover Up" 1994 writes:
- Ross told the Houston Chronicle that Koresh is "your stock cult leader. They're all the same. Meet one and you've met them all. They're deeply disturbed, have a borderline personality and lack any type of conscience. . .No one willingly enters into a relationship like this. So you're talking about deception and manipulation (by the leader), people being coached in ever so slight increments, pulled in deeper and deeper without knowing where it's going or seeing the total picture."
Moore's conclusions about Waco were essentially dismissed through subsequent investigations and reports.
Ross recounted his role regarding the Waco Davidian standoff in a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno and responded to critics such as Ammerman in a statement published by the Washington Post.
Criticism
Criticism of Ross typically originates from those associated with controversial groups or organizations that have been called "cults" such as the Church of Scientology, and academic sources that study these groups, which they prefer to call “new religious movements.” These critics assert that hubris and personal financial reward are Ross' primary motive for his anti-cult activities. Conversely, there has been considerable controversy within academia concerning the funding sources of these scholars, which has raised questions about their own motivation for financial rewards.
Scientology
The Church of Scientology, perhaps Ross' most severe critic, maintains a 17-page critique about him supplemented by a 196-page document at "Religious Freedom Watch".
Shuppe and Darnell
Anson D. Shuppe, who was paid substantial fees by a Scientology lawyer to testify against Ross and CAN in the Jason Scott case,wrote a critique Susan Darnell regarding deprogramming. The article featured at a Web site CESNUR, which is a frequently cited source for cult apologists, the two opine that " It is sociologically understandable that deprogrammers came to acquire ‘spoiled identities’ as vigilantes and mercenaries rather than as bonafide counselors or therapists. Their coercive tactics outraged new religious movements (NRMs) and civil libertarian sympathizers and caused many deprogrammers to face legal and criminal complications when (as often happened) their ‘interventions’ did not work. Operatives’ quest to institutionalize themselves as legitimate professionals acting within the law began not long after CAN was founded."
The Kabbalah Centre
Moshe Omer a leader within the Kabbalah Centre, a controversial organization often called a “cult,” attacked Ross when he was invited by a Temple Shalom of Las Vegas to lecture there on religious cults. Sun.. Ross has been cited as an expert and source within many articles about the Kabbalah Centre and there is a large section about the group within his database.
Others
Other critics note that he has had conflicts with other anti-cult figures such as Steven Hassan and Anton Hein .
External links
- Rick A. Ross Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and Movements (Website)
- Curriculum Vitae of Rick Ross (from "Cult Education and Recovery", a website sponsored by the Rick A. Ross Institute)
- Rick Ross' response to his critics and various allegations
Critical websites
- ReligiousTolerance.org Website critical of Rick Ross
- Rick Ross and the "Ross Institue" An critique of Ross' background and activities, by ReligiousFreedomWatch.com, a Scientology website
References
- Shupe, Anson and Darnel, Susan E. - (2003) The Attempted Transformation of a Deviant Occupation into a Therapy: Deprogramming Seeks a New Identity. A paper presented at the 2003 annual meeting of the SSSR/RRA, Norfolk, VA, October 2003. Available online
- Stephen Kent and Theresa Krebs (1998) “Academic Compromise in the Social Scientific Study of Alternative Religions.” Available online
- “The Sinful Messiah” by Mark England and Darlene McCormick, Waco Tribune-Herald 1993. Available online
- US Department of Justice, Report to the Deputy Attorney General on the Events at Waco, Texas: Part IV, The Role of Experts During the Standoff, February 28 to April 19, 1993. Available online
- Moore, Carol, (1994). Branch Davidians: A study of Government, Violations of Rights and Cover Up, in consultation with Alan Forschler, Ian Goddard, James A. Long, Richard J. Sanford, Timothy Seims and Andrew William. Available online
- “Interim Report to the Deputy Attorney General Concerning the 1993 Confrontation at the Mt. Carmel Complex Waco Texas” (2000) John C. Danforth, Special Counsel. Available online
- “Final Report from John C. Danforth, office of Special Counsel, Waco Investigation,” PRN Newswire November 8, 2000. Available online