Kansas City- Backed by scores of churches and religious groups, a Kansas anti-porn crusader is going after the area’s adult entertainment industry.
Leaders of those churches delivered petitions Thursday to courthouses in six area counties seeking grand jury investigations of 32 businesses for promotion of obscenity. They include strip clubs, sex shops and video rental stores.
“This is most certainly a Christian endeavor. This is basic to who we are,” said Phillip Cosby [pictured], head of the Kansas City chapter of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families, the group behind the effort. “It is the very fabric of our culture that is being ripped apart by this sexualized culture.”
Cosby previously led campaigns against adult bookstores and sex shops in Saline and Dickinson counties in central Kansas, taking advantage of a little-known Kansas law that allows citizens to call for grand jury investigations. At least two businesses were indicted.
How successful Cosby’s efforts will be this time remains to be seen.
The petitions are likely to trigger grand jury investigations in Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas. But Missouri has no means for the public to call for grand jury investigations, so it is less clear what will happen in Jackson, Clay, Platte and Cass counties.
The prosecutors from those four counties issued a joint statement Thursday say they are alerting businesses to be aware of the state’s obscenity law.
A copy of one letter the Jackson County prosecutor’s office sent to Bazooka’s in Kansas City does little more than spell out Missouri’s obscenity law, which ties the definition of obscenity to “contemporary community standards” — standards decided by juries.
Dick Bryant, a lawyer who has represented local adult businesses in obscenity cases, said area authorities had hewn fairly close to standards set in a failed attempt to prosecute Johnson County’s adult industry in the 1980s. Bryant said he didn’t foresee charges from this new campaign.
“From a community tolerance level, there’s probably more acceptance of adult materials since that time,” he said.
A contingent of the supporting church groups met privately Thursday with Jackson County Prosecutor Jim Kanatzar. Howard Cordell, pastor of Faith Covenant Church in Blue Springs, said Kanatzar told the group that there was little he could do to bring charges but that he was exploring avenues.
“We feel that he’s sensitive to the issue,” Cordell said.
Kanatzar declined to talk with reporters.
Cosby said he was aware of the Missouri limitations, but he wanted to alert elected officials to the church leaders’ concerns.
“Let’s engage the culture and ask a question,” Cosby said. “Let’s pick a fight.”
Cosby has spent the past year preaching his group’s view that pornography ruins families, and that adult entertainment businesses lower property values and increase the rates of crime and sexually transmitted diseases.
His goal was to get enough signatures in Wyandotte and Johnson counties to seat a grand jury. To do that, citizens must gather signatures of registered voters based on a formula tied to turnout in the preceding election for governor.
In this case, the group needed 770 signatures in Wyandotte County and 3,863 in Johnson to take aim at eight businesses in those counties, Cosby said. They ended up with significantly more signatures in each, he said.
The group also surpassed its own Missouri goals, netting about 8,200 signatures in Jackson County, home to the majority of its targets.
Bonner Springs Baptist Church has about 100 members. Forty-five signed the petition. Not bad, said pastor Bud Jones, since much of the congregation is not registered or too young to vote.
“As we see in our society more child abuse and more activities on the Internet, there comes a time where we say, ‘That’s enough,’ ” Jones said.
Once Kansas grand juries are seated, district attorneys oversee the process.
“It’s kind of a passive role,” said Brian Burgess, spokesman for Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline. “The D.A. simply acts as a facilitator.”
Some pastors say that though their congregations have been concerned about how pornography poisons a community, Cosby provided the spark that got churches organized.
“Phil has been the catalyst that brings us all together,” said the Rev. James Conard, assistant pastor of First Baptist Church in Shawnee.
“Usually that’s what it takes, one person to lead the charge. … If you’re going to do something, might as well do it in a big way.
“If we had our way, pornography would be illegal.”
