Interview with Christopher Stollar, Author of “The Black Lens”

In this video, Nick Nye interviews Christopher Stollar about his book “The Black Lens,” a work of fiction that sheds light on the dark underworld of sex trafficking. Nye and Stollar also discuss the role of a Christian in the arts and how Stollar’s profits will benefit anti-human trafficking organizations.

It means the world to me that Veritas has come behind this. My wife and I have been to a lot of different churches that have given lip service to the idea of Christians in the arts, but none we’ve been a part of have intentionally backed that.
– Christopher Stollar

Below are edited and transcribed excerpts from the latter part of the video, where Stollar and Nye talk about the role of a Christian artist and his or her contribution to culture.

Christopher Stollar: As created beings, we have so much to contribute to the arts. For centuries the Catholic Church commissioned and sponsored the arts, producing some of the most beautiful works of art. I don’t know why, but for some reason for the last few decades, and even longer than that, Christians have retreated from the arts.

One of my favorite Christian authors is Francis Schaeffer. He devoted an entire book to this subject. He was writing in the 1960s. But even then, one of my favorite quotes from him is, “I am afraid that as evangelicals, we think that a work of art only has value if we reduce it to a tract.” That, to me, couldn’t be farther from the truth. God has given us these skills. He’s given us these abilities to create stories. It should be something we take seriously.

On a personal level, one of my favorite books in the Bible is Esther. To me it reads almost like a modern fiction. You have a strong, female heroine. You have a romantic suspense. You’ve got this murder plot. And yet it doesn’t mention God once. If you look carefully, God isn’t mentioned once in that book. But every single scene and every single description ultimately points back to God.

As soon as I set out to write this story, I knew that I, in some way, wanted to give back to organizations that fight this crime. It’s not enough to publish a book, put it on a shelf, and see the book sales hopefully come in. To me, this is first and foremost an awareness tool for people who love literature, who like reading fiction, and who like a good story. My wife and I sat down and talked about it, and we both felt very strongly convicted that we need to give back. We decided to put 10% of all my personal profits from the book sales to organizations that fight trafficking. She Has A Name is a big one of those groups.

It means the world to me that Veritas has come behind this. My wife and I have been to a lot of different churches that have given lip service to the idea of Christians in the arts, but none we’ve been a part of have intentionally backed that.