Fort Collins Coloradoan, February 3, 2002
By Kelli Lackett
When the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games commence Friday, all eyes will be on Utah. And it's not only speed skating and skiing that will be on display, but also one of the most enigmatic and misunderstood of American-born religions, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Although the church has 11 million members only 14 percent of whom live in Utah, few non-Mormons outside of Utah know much about it.
A new book by local author Carol Avery Forseth, "Gentile Girl: Living with the Latter-day Saints" (Crossroads Press, $11.95), provides an antidote to this collective ignorance. And rather than a long-winded book about church doctrine, "Gentile Girl" offers a glimpse into the lives of members of the church through a memoir of Forseth's own experience as a Baptist student at Brigham Young University during the 1970's.
"It's a very unique inside look at the church from an outsider," said Forseth. "You can buy all kinds of books about Mormons written by Mormons. This book gets you inside (the religion), but it's not Mormon propaganda. At the same time, I really try to tell it like it is, without being polemical."
Brigham Young University, located in Provo, Utah, was 99 percent Mormon when Forseth was an undergraduate there, and this percentage has changed little during the past 25 years. As an ambitious and smart 17-year-old, Forseth was wooed by the college's reputation for academic excellence and its superb music program.
Forseth had been baptized as a Baptist shortly before entering BYU. As soon as she arrived at Brigham Young, as "Gentile Girl" makes clear, she learned just how central the Church of Latter-day Saints, or LDS, was to the everyday workings of the university.
"The whole structure of BYU is centered around the church, which is fair enough--it's a private university. To get football tickets, for instance, you have to go through the church. Dating is only really a possibility if you are Mormon," Forseth said. "The social pressure is so strong to convert."
Forseth's first days at the university were marked by awkwardness and loneliness because her different faith left her feeling isolated from her classmates. And, as "Gentile Girl" chronicles, being surrounded by people whose faith differed so radically from hers led her to question her own faith. But the constant internal and external scrutiny did not diminish her faith; rather, it fortified it.
"It really did strengthen my faith, because I was always asking myself, What do I really believe in? Students at BYU who do not have a strong faith usually get converted to Mormonism," Forseth said.
The book traces Forseth's involvement in the campus community as a leader in the Baptist Student Union, a role that helped her belie her initial feelings of isolation. And although Forseth clearly questions LDS doctrine in "Gentile Girl," she also allows the reader to see her Mormon friends for what they are--faithful, family-oriented, good people. Indeed, several of the friendships Forseth made with Mormons at BYU have for endured 25 years. "The experience taught me cultural sensitivity. I know what it's like to be in the minority. I've had the shoe on the other foot," Forseth said.
Learning to thrive despite being different was good training for Forseth, who went on to teach English in China and Mongolia for most of the 1990's. Now a freelance editor and writer in Fort Collins, Forseth is pleased with the national attention "Gentile Girl" has received since its release in early January. Publishers Weekly reviewed the book along with others about LDS, and the Christian Booksellers' Association's CBA Marketplace will feature the book in its March issue.
"A year from now or even a year ago, this book might not have made such a splash. But with the Olympics, the timing is right," Forseth said. "I think it's important to have a fresh angle on Mormonism right now.
"Mormons are well meaning people just trying to do the right thing. We don't have to be afraid of them," Forseth said. "We just need to learn a little about them so that we know where they come from. We just need to understand and love them."