April 4, 2007
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Francesca Jensen
Director of Communications
National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families
513/521-6227, ext. 111
Kansas City — On Thursday May 17, 2007 pastors of parishes and churches within six counties in the Kansas City metropolitan area will gather on the third floor at The Salvation Army Headquarters, 3637 Broadway in Kansas City, Missouri at 8:00 a.m.
The purpose of the meeting is to deliver back to the pastors the Grand Jury petitions requesting six County Grand Jury investigations into thirty-two pornography outlets in the Kansas City metro area for possible violations of the KS and MO statutes of “promotion of obscenity.”
These pastors will then depart The Salvation Army Headquarters and immediately file the Grand Jury petitions with their respective County courthouses in Wyandotte and Johnson counties in Kansas and Platte, Clay, Jackson and Cass counties in Missouri.
“We wish to duplicate the successful cases in Wichita and Topeka,” said Phillip Cosby, executive director of the National Coalition’s Kansas City regional office. “The multiple Grand Jury indictments call for criminal charges and trials which ask the ‘community standard’ question as allowed by the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case Miller vs. California, and echoed in the Kansas and Missouri state statutes.”
Obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment but must be defined by a judge or jury in a local “community standard” trial.
“Each of the six County Prosecutors and Sheriffs have received an initial obscenity report, held a meeting with local pastors and have been apprised of these follow-up Grand Jury petitions on May 17,” added Cosby.
Central to these meetings was a dialogue on the correlation between an increasingly sexualized culture, the corresponding burden of fantasy-driven criminal behavior and the frustration a prosecutor feels from the apparent desensitization or indifference of the general populace and faith community.
“Our goal is to change a community’s lack of knowledge or indifference into active participation in the legal process and to confront the predatory and addictive nature of the pornography industry, especially with the exacerbation of advanced wireless technologies,” said Cosby.
The approximate number of signatures gathered to call for these Grand Jury investigations will be between 17,000 – 20,000.
“This signature effort to obtain Grand Jury obscenity indictments has been successful in Topeka and Wichita but never before simultaneously in a major, multi-county, two state metro area like Kansas City.”
This work is a continuing effort to confront the pornography industry that originated from an interstate porn shop “ambushing” the community of Abilene, Kansas in 2003. The resulting activism spread to other cities in Kansas and now to Missouri under the umbrella of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families.
For more information, please visit www.nationalcoalition.org and click on the Kansas City link to obtain a copy of the Kansas and Missouri county petitions and the target pornography outlets.
Other successful coordinated efforts have been the passage of state legislation and local zoning ordinances, such as the recent ordinance in Edwardsville, Kansas to restrict and regulate the proven negative secondary effects of the sex industry in communities.
Due to a limited amount of space in the meeting room for pastors and press, please RSVP to pcosby@nationalcoaltion.org of your intent to attend and cover this event.
Following is a list of Kansas City metro area denominations, organizations and congregations have participated in the Grand Jury petition drive to date. This list grows almost daily.
Amazing Grace Lutheran Church
Antioch Church
Blue Valley Baptist Church
Cathedral Church of the King
Christ Community Church
Church on the Rock
College Church of the Nazarene
Colonial Presbyterian Church
Cornerstone Church
Crescent Lake Christian Center
Cross Points Church
Crown Pointe Church
Cure’ of Ars Catholic Church
Fellowship of Christian Athletes
First Baptist Church of Belton
First Baptist Church of Raytown
First Baptist Church of Shawnee
First Church of the Nazarene
First Baptist Church of Weston
First So Baptist Church Overland Park
Grace Bible Church
Grace Fellowship Overland Park
Harmony Vineyard Church
Holy Trinity Church
Jesucristo el Buen
Kansas Catholic Arch Diocese
Knights of Columbus – Council 4962
Lee’s Summit Community Church
Lenexa Baptist Church
Life Bridge Church Belton MO
Living Stones Fellowship
Lord Of Life Lutheran Church
Midwest Baptist College & Seminary
Missouri Catholic Diocese
Nall Ave. Baptist Church
Nall Ave. Church of the Nazarene
New Community Church
New Hope Baptist Church
New Hope Nazarene Church
New Life Community Church
Northern Hills Christian Academy
Oakwood Baptist Church
Olathe Bible Church
Our Lady of Lourdes Parish
Pleasant Hill Community of Christ Church
Redemptress Catholic Church
Ruskin Heights Presbyterian Church
Salvation Army
Serra Club
Servant Christian Community Foundation
Servant Community Church Wyandotte Co.
Shawnee Bible Church
Shawnee Church of the Nazarene
Sheffield Family Life Center
South Leawood Baptist Church
South Woods Christian Church
St. Ann Parish
St. Andrews Parish
St. Bridget Catholic Church
St. Catherine Parish
St. Cyril Parish
St. Gabriel Parish
St. John the Baptist Parish
St. Jude of Oak Grove
St. Matthew Parish
St. Patricks Parish
St. Pauls Church of the Nazarene
St. Raphael the Archangel Church
St. Thomas Moore Parish
St. Louis Parish KCMO
Summit View Church of the Nazarene KC
TGIW Groups
Timothy Lutheran Church
Tri-City Baptist Church
True Light Church of the Nazarene
Victory Hills Church of the Nazarene
Vineyard Church Overland Park
Visitation Catholic Church
Ward Parkway Presbyterian Church
Worldwide Church of God
