Kansas City, Mo. ? Church leaders on both sides of the state line turned in petitions Thursday, seeking grand jury investigations of businesses they say promote obscenity.

The petitions were delivered in six counties in the Kansas City metropolitan area: Jackson, Clay, Platte and Cass counties on the Missouri side and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas.

The petitions, which seek criminal charges, name 32 businesses.

“This is most certainly a Christian endeavor. This is basic to who we are,” said Phillip Cosby, 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 and other anti-pornography activists first made headlines in 2004 when they launched similar drives against sexually oriented businesses in Cosby’s hometown of Abilene and 10 other Kansas cities, using a state law that allows the public to petition for grand jury investigations.

The push yielded a misdemeanor indictment against a Wichita store, and regulations on adult businesses in Dickinson County. But other grand juries declined to issue indictments, and a judge dismissed 10 misdemeanor counts issued in Dickinson County.

While the latest petition drives are likely to force grand juries in the two Kansas counties, Missouri law does not have a similar provision.

However, prosecutors in those four counties issued a joint statement saying they would alert businesses of the need for awareness of Missouri’s obscenity law.

Despite the limitations in Missouri, Cosby said the drives there would alert officials of church leaders’ concerns.

“Let’s engage the culture and ask a question,” Cosby said. “Let’s pick a fight.”