KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)–“Society is staggering from the effects of over-promiscuity,” Philip Cosby of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families told a chapel audience at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Cosby, who heads the coalition’s work in the Kansas City, Mo., area, referenced Promise Keepers surveys showing that pornography had invaded the lives and homes of more than half the men in attendance.
Since his retirement from a 22-year Army career, Cosby has been at the front lines of the war against pornography and, as the law calls them, “sexually oriented businesses” SOBs in three cities.
Cosby first moved to Abilene, Kan., a “Norman Rockwell town” as he describes it, completely unprepared for the ambush of a pornography outlet, the Lion’s Den.
Having just moved there, Cosby knew no one and no one knew him. However, he knew something had to be done, and his efforts resulted “Operation Daniel,” in which he and 140 other men stood 24 hours a day, seven days a week at the outlet for 100 days.
“That truck traffic came to a screeching halt for 100 days at that place as we stood there,” said Cosby, referring to the stand against sexual immorality that even made its way into the Chinese mainland press.
Since then, Cosby has continued to study the law concerning SOBs, which he says is on the side of Christians and in agreement with Scripture.
On the federal level, an obscenity prosecution task force is becoming more and more active, Cosby said. The law allows for community standard trials for evidence in a community to be prosecuted as “obscene.”
“The courts agree -– sex businesses will increase crime [and they] will increase STDs [sexually transmitted diseases],” Cosby said.
Those in law enforcement understand the danger, having dealt with the rapists and the pedophiles, Cosby said, and they see what exacerbates the problem. However, the general population remains desensitized and indifferent and thus it is difficult to do anything about it.
“The Scripture calls it the deceitfulness of sin,” Cosby said.
After hearing of his success in Abilene, Cosby was invited to Wichita, Kan., where there were 18 porn shops within the city limits alone. While trying to determine how to tackle the problem, he saw the mayor of Wichita take a stand against the sexual immorality that had found its way into the city. Cosby worked with the mayor, explaining how zoning laws and community standard trials could work in their favor, and together they managed a major reform there.
Most recently, Cosby was called to Kansas City, Mo., in an effort to retake the metro area from the clutches of sexual immorality.
Cosby encouraged the seminarians in his Nov. 7 message to join him in the fight against the pornography industry by petitioning for grand jury action in which only the evidence, the law, the prosecutor and the judge would be involved in framing charges against sexually oriented businesses.
Rick Schatz, president and CEO of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, closed with a challenge to guard their households and their children. Pornography problems too often begin with early exposure among children who need to be protected and taught by their parents before they may be exposed to pornography elsewhere.
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