THE LEGACY OF FATHERHOOD



This article is also published on the End Crowd at:

https://endcrowd.org/uncategorized/the-legacy-of-fatherhood-brooks-bello/

The Legacy of Fatherhood
by Reverend Dr. Brook Bello


I have always loved and honored “men of honor.” If you ask me what it means right now to have my dad in my life along with my spiritual dad as well, I would have to say, “it’s like a gentle breeze of strength and delight.” There is nothing so beautiful than a great father! I have not met a child of any age who didn't want one or a woman who didn’t imagine or appreciate him either. I read sometime ago that; “chivalry is dead” but what has happened  to the idea of gender respect, fatherhood, protection and real love, here of late, makes that seem manageable.

The organization I founded and run, More Too Life™ and my inspiration speaking Brook Bello Inspires is in a fight to do the hymnic maneuver on what I call, “The Legacy of Fatherhood.” The fight to stop the mass exit of men of honor or young men looking to discover what it means to be a man in the first place, from being steered down a long path to its demise. From choking on pop culture norms, years of shame and perhaps guilt, viewing pornograpy disguised as “boys will be boys” and the stripping of someones daughter, maybe your own, force prostitution buying, female lyrical degradation in hip hop music disguised as “mainstream.” Can we just cut with the “pop ups” please!

About a decade ago, I was sitting in my car in Hollywood, California. Besides the state I was born,  which we left when I was 3 or 4 years of age; I am from Southern California. I have lived in a few cities in L.A. County and they are all home to me. As a victim of profound sexual violence, and I use that word lightly because “sex” is not rape nor human trafficking (sex-slavery, forced prostitution or prostitution) but something relationally intimate. But for the purpose of explanation I am stuck calling it “sex slavery which is sex-trafficking” because the entire planet seems to have been duped. I have long stated along with other leaders, that sexual exploitation is camouflaged in a highly sexualized society. That being said, the thin line between intimate sex between and for example, a loving young or elder married duo with a family of 2 plus that met at their high school prom is not what rapist, pornographers, pedophiles, incestual criminals, child molestors, “sexual tourist” demanders or buyers, aka, “Johns” and other of these wretched violators of innocent little girls, little boys and young ladies, are actively doing. Although, some may think they are and that is a dangerous thing. There are those in Germany and other legislationally misguided countries when it comes to laws against prostitution (prostitution is legal in Germany, thus being a pimp or “landlord” is also legal) that take it to another level of deeply psychotic, satanic, sadistic torture of those children (young people) or women they purchase or sometimes kidnap or take.  Going into those unimaginable details is unnecessary.

Nevertheless, trust me when I say, it is bad and because of the internet, the softening of global lines and the exposure of all of it to impressionable youth, it is bad everywhere. And if you think or ever thought a 16 year old homeless teen or an 8 year old rape victim, who is now a 27 year old forcibly prostituted young lady, who even may be married to her trafficker pimp, who has 5 other young ladies living with them, desires to be there or even understands her demise, think again.

During the transatlantic slave trade millions of then Negroes (African Americans) were trafficked, enslaved for forced sex, forced labor; of every kind, killing and maiming for sport, to build the infrastructure of the USA and many other countries and in that former great old Kentucky way of being a 10 year old slave girl and “sold down the river” and I am sure you know what happen there. Not to mention that the male slaves were chained upstairs in barns and shacks to “de-man” them in every emotional and psychological way possible, which in all men I think creates a search for identity and manhood. But oddly enough the real problem with all forms of human trafficking is the “demand” for a helpless, innocent child, or a lost, broken or pained young woman and in some cases a young man.

My work on the Research Advisory Council for Hunt Alternatives, Demand Abolition and their excellent work in ending and combating demand is one of the best things going. That being said, slavery was once Negroes as it were, our Jewish brothers and sisters and Indians and so many other groups that now the capitalization on free labor and kicks for weirdoes is at an all time high and any statement against slavery, and justice to anyone should apply in todays “modern day slavery.” For that reason this quote of a quote from Joshua Dubois applies here;

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. —Galatians 3:28 (ESV) On June 16, 1963, in the middle of an epic struggle for civil rights in America, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel sent a powerful telegram to President John F. Kennedy: We forfeit the right to worship God as long as we continue to humiliate Negroes. The hour calls for moral grandeur and spiritual audacity. When we demean, humiliate, debase God’s beloved creation, the rabbi said, we forfeit our very right to worship God.”
― Joshua DuBois, The President's Devotional

I agree with scripture, I agree with Rabbi Abraham and I agree with Joshua Dubois. What about you?! However, humiliation seems too soft a word for even then.

“Trafficking women into prostitution and other branches of the sex industry accounts for the largest portion of human trafficking to Western Europe and in many cases is associated with serious violations of the right  to sexual self-determination and with considerable violence.
As a result, some of the affected women are severely traumatized. However, the definition of
human trafficking is broader than this and also includes trafficking for the purpose of economic exploitation in other sectors, as well as trafficking into marriage.”
Follmar-Otto, Petra, and Heike Rabe. Human Trafficking in Germany: Strengthening Victim's Human Rights. Berlin: Deutsches Institut Für Menschenrechte, 2009. 2009 Human Trafficking Study. Web


Because of social dysfunctions it is often unclear who is a victim and who is not. But if the crux and core of the issue is men and there is an average of 7 - 40 men, depending which country you are in, on a given day or night who will purchase and that does not include rapes, familial sex slavery done in the home, in foster care and to homeless youth, then the issue is a predominately a male issue. I am known for this quote: “men are the biggest part of the problem of sexual violence and human trafficking and they will be the biggest part of the solution.”

Will the real men of honor please stand up. It may have been confusing who the victims were but now we are all without excuse.

“For example, human trafficking and human smuggling or illegal migration are confused, human trafficking is equated with forced prostitution and forced marriage, or human trafficking
is positioned merely within the framework of organized crime. The above definition allows distinctions to be made. This clearly shows that both the element of limiting the right of self-determination and freedom of movement and choice on the one hand and the exploitative purpose on the other hand are material. In contrast to human trafficking, in which the perpetrator uses coercion or deception to bring the trafficked persons into a situation of exploitation, the term smuggling means an arrangement to provide assistance to migrants in obtaining illegal entry.  However, the smuggling of migrants can in some cases lead to human trafficking when the trafficked persons, following an initial free decision to migrate using a smuggler, then lose control over their freedom of movement or choice, for example when their identity papers are taken away or they are forced to “work off” the smuggler’s fee under his control in the country of destination. “
Follmar-Otto, Petra, and Heike Rabe. Human Trafficking in Germany: Strengthening Victim's Human Rights. Berlin: Deutsches Institut Für Menschenrechte, 2009. 2009 Human Trafficking Study. Web

Statements about the extent of human trafficking continue to be problematic. It is agreed that statistics on crime which reflect the number of known cases are not very informative. Estimates of the actual worldwide or regional extent of trafficking are often based on unclear definitions and methods. It is very obvious that depending on where we are geographically or intellectually there may be some made up greyed areas, but the bottom line is we all know when something is wrong and we all know that this is very wrong.

So I ask, will the real men stand up? Will the men who love their wives and long to protect their sons and daughters stand up? Will the men who choose to honor God in the truest and most authentic of ways rise? Deuteronomy writes: “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.”

This is what must be done, and dads, those who desire to be, brothers, fathers, husbands, young men searching; the legacy of fatherhood belongs to you. Breathe life into it, keep it from choking any longer, grab the reins and fight for glory for it lies in your hands. I am not saying women are not already in the fight but we cannot do it alone.

Proverbs 4:1-9 ESV
Hear, O sons, a father's instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight, for I give you good precepts; do not forsake my teaching. When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from my words.”

Author, Rev, Dr. Brook Bello is an author of Living Inside the Rainbow, film-maker, civil rights leader and champion survivor from domestic minor sex-trafficking and ordained minister and licensed chaplain. She is the CEO of Brook Bello Inspires and founder of More Too Life™. As a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization and residential program, More Too Life is devoted to advocating for all and preventing, sexually exploited abused children and young women and men and the victims of various forms of sexual violence, human trafficking by addressing, eliminating, and working with victims who are dealing with the root causes of rape, incest, molestation, prostitution, child porngraphy, bullying and more. More Too Life is on the front lines of ending demand by working with teen males and also has the first state recognized Restorative Justice End Demand Education (aka John School) to educate those criminals of commercial sex exploitation and court appointed in order to prevent it in the future. For More Information, please visit www.moretoolife.org
https://brookbello.com
https://www.moretoolife.org
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