While slavery might seem like a term from a bygone era, the truth is there are more than 27 million victims of it worldwide in the forms of labor/debt bondage, forced laborers and sex and drug trafficking.
And utilizing classic hymns with a new-school feel, Carl Thomas Gladstone is trying to bring the issue back to the forefront of people’s minds.
Gladstone is a Deacon of the United Methodist Church and the director of the Young Leaders Initiative, a United Methodist ministry focused on youth and young adults in the heart of Detroit.
And in his free time he showcases his skills as a perceptive musician with an innate desire to reclaim old songs and find contemporary meaning in them.
The nationally distributed artist says his music explores the deepest human experiences and they “expose moments when the divine seems distant, and ultimately (it) revels in the moments when hope and love seem close at hand.”
His latest undertaking, The Abolitionist Hymnal, strives to take his personal experiences and newfangled understanding of the modern day slave trade to bring a sense of awareness to the Christian community.
“The abolitionists of the 19th century were fighting laws on books that said slavery was okay, which brought it to the surface a little bit,” Gladstone said. “Nowadays it is very underground and so how would Christian congregations claim the identity of abolitionists today with that reality? We don’t even associate with people who might work in the slave trade.”
