Media/Arts
Program to evangelize through television

By Rebecca Bostic, The Catholic Sun
January 4, 2007

Millions of Americans spend hours watching television every day. With hundreds of channels available offering all sorts of programing, why aren’t there more widely watched faith-focused television shows?

That is the question Joe Reynolds — owner of Skyline Productions, a Mesa-based film company — began asking more than three years ago. He never found an answer, so he decided to create his own solution.

Reynolds recently began production of “Defenders of the Faith,” an educational Catholic television show, under his recently formed non-profit Catholic production company called Saint Kolbe Productions.

The mission of Reynolds’ production company is to provide high-quality Catholic programming via television and film media. The show is filmed and produced by Reynolds and hosted by Steve and Janet Ray, the hosts of “Footprints of God” — a 10-part DVD series that follows the story of God in the Holy Land.

“‘Defenders’ really came out of my meeting Steve and Janet and really realizing that, as a cradle Catholic, my Bible was gathering too much dust,” Reynolds said.

“Seeing the quality that was going into ‘Footprints of God’ made me wonder, ‘why can’t we have quality Catholic programming in general? Why should we accept anything less?’”

Shot for the purpose of filling a half-hour television time slot, every “Defenders of the Faith” episode will feature three facets: a travel log, a human element and “Ask Steve.”

The travel log will feature Steve and Janet Ray in different Biblical locations, such as the Holy Land or Egypt. Steve Ray will answer questions concerning the Bible and faith that he receives on his Web site — www.catholicconvert.com — in the “Ask Steve” segment of the show.

The human element portion will feature the personal story of a man or woman of faith.

“A lot times we hear from priests, we hear from nuns, and that is all good, but at the end of the day, for me personally, my vocation is my marriage,” Reynolds said.

“I can relate even more to a husband who had lost his wife, gone through cancer and how that impacted him,” he added. Even something as simple as the way Catholics attend Mass could be featured.

Ultimately Reynolds hopes to evangelize through “Defenders of the Faith” and thinks television is one of the most relevant ways to do so. His for-profit production company, Skyline Productions, films the televised Mass for the Phoenix Diocese each week.

“I see the need, the more I work with Steve and Janet Ray, and doing the TV Mass and those types of things, that we just have to evangelize and we’re not doing it on certain levels,” Reynolds said.

“I mean one-on-one is wonderful and that’s very important, but if the media can be used to make bad statements and have bad impacts then why can’t we use it to make a good impact?”

Steve Ray also believes in the importance of evangelizing through media, calling himself a propagandist at heart, in the positive sense.

“If Peter, Paul and the apostles were here today, they’d be using television and Internet,” Ray said.

“Defenders of the Faith” is Saint Kolbe Productions’ first endeavor, chosen because of a relatively low cost for the large impact it could have, according to Reynolds.

He hopes to show “Defenders of the Faith” on Christian networks like EWTN, PAX and a Hallmark “Faith and Values Television” channel.

Locally, Reynolds dreams of buying the half-hour time slot immediately following the Diocese of Phoenix televised Mass to play the show. He hopes the show is unlike any Catholic television produced before.

“Our faith is exciting and so we don’t need to come across boring on TV. If we do, what are we saying to the viewers?” Reynolds asked. “We’re saying our faith is boring. We’re saying practice it alone in a dark corner and that is certainly not the case.”