In Mormonism, a penalty is a specified punishment for breaking an oath of secrecy after receiving the Nauvoo endowment ceremony. Adherents promised they would submit to execution in specific ways should they reveal certain contents of the ceremony. In the ceremony participants each symbolically enacted three of the methods of their execution: throat slitting, heart removal, and disembowelment. These penalties were first instituted by Joseph Smith in 1842, and further developed by Brigham Young after Smith's death. The penalties were similar to oaths made as part of a particular rite of Freemasonry practiced in western New York at the time the endowment was developed. During the 20th century, the largest Mormon denomination, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), gradually softened the graphic nature of their penalties, and in 1990, removed them altogether from its version of the ceremony. Other Mormon denominations continue to have the penalties as part of their temple oaths.
On May 4, 1842, Joseph Smith instituted the endowment ritual in his Red Brick Store in Nauvoo, Illinois to some of his closest circle of adherents later termed the Anointed Quorum.[1][2] At three different stages of the endowment, participants were asked to take an oath of secrecy regarding the ceremony.[3]: 8
Each of the described penalties was accompanied by gestures known as the "execution of the penalty" which had the oath taker simulate the actions described in the oath.[3]: 8
The oaths and their accompanying gestures resembled certain oaths performed in a particular Freemasonry tradition in western New York at the time,[9]: 141 in which participants promised:
Beginning in 1919, LDS Church president Heber J. Grant appointed a committee charged with revising the endowment ceremony which was done under the direction of apostle George F. Richards from 1921 to 1927. Among the changes instituted was a modification of the oaths. While the gestures remained unchanged, the church clarified the verbal description of the oath with the phrase, "rather than do so, I would suffer my life to be taken."[citation needed]
In April 1990, the LDS Church eliminated the oaths and the gestures from the endowment.[6][12] During the period when these oaths were used, there was no documented instance in which a person was killed by the LDS Church or committed suicide for having violated the oaths of secrecy of the endowment.[citation needed]
These penalty oaths and the oath of vengeance are often confused. The oath of vengeance—a promise to pray for justice for the murders of Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum—was removed from the endowment in 1927 as part of the church's "Good Neighbor" policy,[citation needed] and the penalty oaths were removed in 1990. The penalty oaths are also frequently confused with the concept of blood atonement.[by whom?]
Some groups within the Mormon fundamentalist movement continue to practice the endowment without modification.[citation needed] These groups still participate in these oaths when performing the endowment.[citation needed] Some of the denominations that continue to perform the original endowment include the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Apostolic United Brethren, and the True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days.[citation needed]