The Christian campaign against witchcraft, satanism and the occult did not begin with allegations of the ritual abuse of children (Beckford 1985). As the last chapter showed, opposition to new religions, to games with an occult slant, to forms of pop music that used satanic symbolism were precursors of it. However, as has already been recognised (Jenkins 1992), the role of the Church in encouraging allegations of satanism was a powerful one. As well as the sermons that were, and are, preached, fundamentalist writing and lecturing by individuals and members of campaigning organisations like the Cult Awareness Network in the United States, the ReachOut Trust and Beacon Foundation in Britain, have spread the ideas of the witches' sabbath and the black mass more widely.

As far as the subsequent epidemic of allegations was concerned, personal testimonies were as important as the Church's input. There is a well-established tradition of born-again Christians testifying about their involvement with witchcraft and satanism to the congregations of churches and in lectures sponsored by Christian organisations, as demonstrations of how deeply sunk in sin they were before their salvation by Christ (e.g. Trinkle 1986). The mother of the children in one case I studied had, for several years, made a practice of approaching small fundamentalist churches with a story of how she had been a satanist and had repented. Such ‘trophies of grace’, as these converts may be called, have for many years encouraged the spread of the idea among fundamentalists that witchcraft and devil worship is prevalent throughout Britain.