Researching Satanism			click to return home
	Back in 1990s a “satanic / ritual abuse scare” was beginning to die down. Evangelical Christians and various kinds of therapists had been alleging that vast numbers of children were being “ritually abused” and amazing numbers of adults were “recovering memories” of earlier “ritual abuse”. Quite often ignorant and malicious accusations were made linking Pagans and Satanists — but almost everyone except evangelical Christians were being accussed too.
	I decided it was time to find out if there were self-identified Satanists in Britain and, if there were, if they had anything in common with Pagans.
	I also explored the accusations that were being made. I did this because I find religious language and polemic interesting. I also find religious intolerance and bigotry interesting too ... Finally, I'm interested in ritual behaviour and in the relationships between religion(ing) and other aspects of people's lives. This seemed like a good opportunity to test various ideas.
	Click here to go to my (short) list of publications about Satanists — and about the polemical accusations.
	I'm still interested in but not really researching Satanism or religiously motivated abuse.
	My most recent publication about Satanism was a letter in a local free-distribution newspaper in late October 2005 in response to some silly letters from Christians objecting to a heavy metal band with alleged Satanic involvement who performed in Milton Keynes.
	One of the most positive results of the whole scare was the establishment of an immensely important organisation called the British False Memory Society. They have helped many families torn apart by manipulated memories and bad diagnoses. For their website — and links to similar soceities in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Nordic countries and the USA, click here.