Rev. Davis tells his own story

The Rev. France Davis, pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church in Salt Lake City, had never considered writing a memoir until it was suggested by Nayra Atiya, a writer and a member of his congregation.

Atiya saw the Rev. Davis as a powerful storyteller, but he was initially reluctant, for reasons of humility. After all, a memoir would call attention to himself.

It took Atiya a year to convince the pastor that a memoir was a wise thing to do. So she interviewed him about his life and philosophy with a recorder, then transcribed and arranged what Davis had to say.

The result is "France Davis: An American Story Told," a moving portrait of a gentle man with undeniable charisma.

"Nayra did the arranging and the writing, and I did most of the talking," the pastor said during a recent sit-down — which included Atiya — at the Calvary Church.

"I suppose each of us has two sides to our nature," said the Rev. Davis. "One that lashes out in anger, and the other that will turn the other cheek. In my youthful days I was pretty rugged, tending to call people names or even fight. That has changed. I'm not quickly angered — and I'm much more mellow because of my faith and ministry."

Born 60 years ago in Cooper's Town, Ga., Davis was educated in segregated schools. He also studied at several universities, including the University of California at Berkeley, taking degrees in African American studies and rhetoric.

During those years, Davis took part in the civil-rights movement, and he even met such key figures as Martin Luther King Jr., joining him in the march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. But he concedes that he "had little or no sense of the quality or value of it" at the time.

Davis said he made only a small contribution. "Nobody knows my name. I was a pebble in a stream. At the time I didn't even sense the greatness of Martin Luther King Jr."

As a young man, Davis had a spiritual experience, which he believes was God "ordering my steps, directing me to a higher calling." To preach in the ministry.

In 1972, he came to Salt Lake City on a one-year teaching fellowship at the University of Utah. "I joined the Calvary Baptist Church, and soon I was asked to fill in for the departing pastor. I'm still filling in some 33 years later.

"My wife and I had a sense of a calling here in the best biblical sense of that term."

The Rev. Davis faced minority status in two ways: to function in a culture in which less than 1 percent of the population was black, and to lead a church in an environment heavily influenced by the dominant LDS Church.

The reverend has also had his share of negative experiences.