Edward L. Kimball's Lengthen Your Stride picks up the story of President Spencer W. Kimball where his previous volume leaves off, bringing into focus Kimball's years as President of the Church. It is arranged topically rather than chronologically, offering the reader a detailed look at every aspect of President Kimball's tenure.

In some ways, this volume represents a revolution in Deseret Book's treatment of a Prophet. While the book is complimentary and respectful of Kimball and his years as Prophet of the Church, it isn't afraid to discuss the very human side of the man. Called of God, ordained to high office, he nonetheless struggled with his human frailties. In particular, as he grew older and neared death, his failing health, and his occasional confusion and even delirium, are discussed openly and frankly. I was very happy to see this approach.

In a brief Publisher's Preface, we find the following intriguing information:

In actuality there is no such thing as an objective biography. In every case the life and events and experiences of the person being profiled are funneled through the eyes of the biographer, who by the very nature of what he chooses to include creates a slant to the biography. This is to be expected both by a publisher and a reader. In this case, the publisher and the biographer do not agree on the interpretations or weight of importance given to a number of events, or the choices of characterization of some of the people. The author and the publisher have had open and energetic discussions on these issues,and there has been some give and take in the editorial process. The resulting book reflects a compromise between the two points of view. (p. ix)

To tell the truth, I've always assumed this went on behind the scenes, with authors, perhaps, being distressed by what is omitted from their work. Sometimes authors and publishers have different agendas. I suppose the publisher usually wins out.

But Kimball seems to have a plan, one inspired by his father:

In my biographical writing I have tried to always deal with sensitive issues cautiously but candidly. I want the reader to receive a fair telling of the full story, rather than a sanitized version from which the humanness has been leached. My father and I occasionally talked about that question, and he agreed that the story of a life should be told candidly, "warts and all." His concern was that there should not be unfair emphasis on the warts. (p. xvii)

In the current instance, readers have a rare opportunity to see what was in the author's original draft. The text is contained on the accompanying CD, along with other Kimball-related resources. I have no idea whether the draft itself was redacted before its placement on the CD, but this brings us closer to the mind of the author than we've been able to get in a book in a long time.

The author is a son of Spencer W. Kimball, who treats himself as just another player in the story. Nowhere in the published text, from chapter one to the end, do I find Kimball referring to his father as "my father." In the introduction he describes Pres. Kimball as such, but in the body of the book, he in simply "Spencer." And he speaks constantly about Spencer's son "Ed," referring to himself. It was a bit surreal at times, but I got used to it.

Reading the book was a little like observing a holy work in practice. Kimball was not altogether sure he was up to the job; I think he would have passed it to someone else if he'd had the option. But with a strong faith and a clear sense of direction, he dived into the job with his whole heart, and thus became one of the Church's most beloved Presidents.

Some have commented that Kimball had a bit of a hard edge to him. Some of this may come from reading The Miracle of Forgiveness, admittedly a very difficult book for sinful mortals to read. Evidently Kimball's feelings toward the book changed as he grew older:

The Miracle of Forgiveness grew out of the apostle's many years counseling thousands of troubled people. He had earlier stated his intention not to write books--"there were books enough"--but he finally concluded that the Church needed "an extensive treatise on repentance" and that it was his responsibility to create one. He spent uncountable hours over ten years, including summer "vacations" from conference assignments, to produce the manuscript. The book's tone, tougher than Spencer's in-person counseling, reflected his belief that people rationalize sin too quickly and consider repentance easy. Indeed, it was a book more on sin and repentance than on forgiveness. Spencer later seemed to wish he had adopted a gentler tone. In 1977 he said to Lyle Ward, his neighbor, "Sometimes I think I might have been a little too strong about some of the things I wrote in this book." (p. 79-80)

This is a good example of how Kimball seemed to mature and grow as he exercised his Presidency and enlarged his own vision. Time after time he demonstrated a wider spiritual maturity, an ability to react with a keen sense of judgment, and a willingness to err on the side of openness rather than restrictiveness.

As I read, my respect for his willingness to err on the side of generosity grew. I was fascinated by the following account:

President Kimball spoke to six hundred at the youth conference and to five thousand at the stake meeting. President Garris had asked whether the sacrament might be administered at the stake meeting, and President Kimball agreed, if it would take not more than thirty minutes. At the stake meeting, learning that about five hundred of those present were not members, President Kimball; announced, "I am highly honored to know that there are nearly five hundred of you who are not members of the Church. We are honored by your presence. The fact that you are here is an indication that you have great love for the Savior. So I would like to invite each of you to partake of the sacrament with us." Forty priests and one hundred deacons efficiently distributed the emblems to the large congregation. In his address, President Kimball talked for an hour on the Savior, bearing a strong personal testimony. (p. 22-23)

This kind of spiritual generosity was heartening to me. I don't recall attending a sacrament meeting where such an invitation was extended.

From time to time, President Kimball's personal views differed from those advocated officially by the Church. Kimball was notorious in his belief that sexual sin was about as serious as any wrongdoing by a member of the Church. These views extended to the subject of abortion.

In 1976 the Church produced a filmstrip about abortion. In the audiotape accompanying the filmstrip, President Kimball expressed the view that in cases of pregnancy caused by rape," abortion would greatly compound the wrong. An unborn baby must not be punished for the sins of his father." Ten weeks later, however, the First Presidency reissued its statement reiterating that abortion might be justified by "pregnancy...caused by forcible rape and produc[ing] serious emotional trauma in the victim." President Kimball's contrary statement was thereby identified as simply a personal view, without directly repudiating it. (p. 175)

In nearly every chapter, I saw a side of Kimball that I had not known before. I had no doubt that long-time members will find less of the book surprising. But for the rest of us, this was something of an eye-opening experience.

After reading the book, I decided to spend some time with the CD, especially with the working draft. I was amazed at how much material was omitted from the printed book. Many reasons can be given for omissions -- space considerations, redundancy, lack of agreement with the content -- but I do believe that having the CD is a real boon to everyone wanting to broaden their understanding of Spencer W. Kimball the person.

In the interest of brevity, I can't point to the many places where I wished Edward Kimball's words had been included in the book. However, I will reproduce a section from Chapter 20, titled "The Question of Priesthood Denial." Only the text enclosed in brackets appears in the printed text:

["We realize we do not know all there is to be known about this problem."

No doubt the most dramatic moment of the Kimball administration and probably the highlight of Church history in the twentieth century occurred in June 1978, when the first Presidency announced a revelation allowing all worthy men of all races, to be ordained to the priesthood] and allowing worthy men and women access to all the temple ordinances. The history of this issue reaches back to the early years of the Church. Without understanding the background, one cannot appreciate the magnitude of the 1978 revelation.

When the Church was very young a few black men were ordained to the priesthood. But soon such ordinations ceased and a tradition grew, supported by common Christian beliefs and certain scriptural interpretations, that blacks bore the burden of a curse levied by God on Cain and his posterity which precluded them from participating fully in the life of the Church.

After World War II the civil rights movement grew powerfully, calling for equal legal and social status for blacks. The movement gained strength through the 1960s, resulting in strong criticism of the Church for its exclusion of blacks from the priesthood and the temple. The clamor grew ever louder, motivating some Church leaders to brace against attack and others to ask whether the time had come to seek a change.

The Traditional Explanation for Restrictive Policy

The Church in which Spencer grew up in the early twentieth century accepted without question that "colored" or "Negro" members of the Church could not receive the priesthood. They were ineligible for missionary service and all priesthood leadership positions. Neither men nor women of African descent could receive temple endowment, although they could be baptized vicariously for their ancestors. They could receive patriarchal blessings, serve as secretaries (though not as ward clerks), teach classes, and participate in the music program. African-American women could be visiting teachers, but men could not be home teachers because it was a priesthood assignment. Skin color was not the issue--blacks from Polynesia or Australia faced no such limitations. "Lineage," or presumed genealogy, was the problem, but Mormons shared with other Americans the general social prejudice that relegated blacks to secondary status. A study by Armand Mauss concluded that Mormons were prejudiced, but not more than other religious Americans. "Mormons . .. were no more likely to give anti-Negro responses than were the Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Lutherans . . . or Baptists," although their belief system could provide an easy rationalization for prejudice.

[African-Americans in small numbers had been members of the Church from its days in Nauvoo. At least two black men, Walker Lewis, an elder, and Elijah Abel, a Seventy, were ordained to the priesthood during Joseph Smith's lifetime. Little is known of Lewis, but Elijah Abel continued his activity in the Church in Utah, even though ordination of other blacks ceased.] By Spencer's day, Church members who were aware of Abel generally believed his ordination did not accurately reflect true doctrine but was either a mistake, an exception, or the result of Joseph Smith's still imperfect understanding. It was not thought impossible that a black man could be ordained, just that it was improper. When such ordination error came to light, the man would be asked to suspend use of his priesthood.

[By the twentieth century the origin of the restriction had receded far enough into the past that it carried the sanctity of long-established tradition. Most Mormons felt satisfied that it had a scriptural basis, even though the cited passages were at best ambiguous.] Spencer knew that the restriction did not come from explicit scriptures but rather from interpretations by various Church leaders. [The reasoning, as often constructed, ran this way: If (as attributed to Joseph Smith and Brigham Young) God disapproved of blacks holding the priesthood and if (in God's justice) individuals are accountable only for their own shortcomings, the withholding of priesthood from blacks who have lived worthily in mortality must reflect some kind of failure on their part before they were born.]

One needs to be careful when comparing the rough draft to the finished product. It isn't as simple as reading the text in brackets -- other additions were made along the way before the final compilation of the book. However, as you read what is cited above, you can get an idea of type of depth and texture that can be gotten from reading the rough draft.

Incidentally, we ought to be careful not to talk a bit about the woman behind the man. Camilla was evidently an important part of Kimball's life. I knew a bit about her, but did not know she was raised in a Mexican Mormon colony, and thus had some facility with the Spanish language. She was an extraordinary woman, even when things got pretty dicey toward the end of Kimball's life. After a particular surgery, Camilla found herself drawing on every inner resource at her command:

In what Camilla called "the most traumatic experience of my life," Spencer's personality after this surgery underwent a temporary change. Everyone became an enemy. He said hurtful things to Camilla. He castigated the doctor for letting him go on the trip to Australia when no preparations had been made. Camilla retreated to cry alone, although the doctors repeatedly assured her the outbursts were beyond his control and would pass. Spencer struggled, half knowing that what he said was unkind but unable to restrain himself. When his counselors came to the hospital, they agreed it was not a good time to visit. Instead, they gave Camilla a blessing that brought her comfort. (p. 393)

It's an old saw -- behind every great man is a great woman. I think this is very true in the case of Camilla; she deserves recognition for the role she played in supporting and upholding her husband.

A word about the CD that accompanies the book. On the disc can be found the full text of this biography, along with the text of the author's draft. You can also find copies of other biographies of President Kimball, along with some of his books. I phoned Deseret Book to check on my intuition -- that this is the first time a CD with the rough draft of a book was issued by them. It was confirmed. Is this something they'll do again? This wasn't so clear.

Perhaps an observation in Chapter 6, "Private Life," summarizes what I liked most about this book:

For many, he was "the Prophet," and for them it was hard to see him as a man with a failing body, human emotions, a life history, family connections and complications, likes and dislikes, character traits both admirable and troublesome, confidence and insecurities, a sense of humor. (p. 50)

All too often Presidents of the Church are cloaked in a robe of infallibility, robbing them of the very humanness that makes them such good men. President Kimball was right -- there's no real purpose in accentuating the negatives. But by hiding them completely, you create a man in your own image, and deny that man his basic humanity.

To the very end, Spencer W. Kimball was a man of wit and charity. I was charmed by this observation:

In May 1981, Spencer performed the wedding for his granddaughter Paula Kimball and Teryl Gardner. He struggled slightly to read the text even though it was printed in large type. Usually at such ceremonies Spencer gave counsel to the couple being married. This time he did not, but later he leaned over to Teryl and whispered his only piece of advice: "Don't let on that you know how to do the dishes." It proved to be the last sealing Spencer performed. (p. 395)

I do have one observation about the book itself, one echoed by others who have read the book. For whatever reason, the quality of the photographs is below Deseret Book's normal standard. Many are grainy and hard to see. I don't know if better originals were not available.

This is a book worthy of a place on your bookshelf. Will future biographies carry on in this tradition? I don't know. I can only hope that the desire for a balanced picture of the prophets grows and results in new and exciting life stories of these men.

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Jeff Needle
September 29, 2005