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.

Original 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. At three different stages of the endowment, participants were asked to take an oath of secrecy regarding the ceremony.

Oaths

Enactment

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.

Similar Masonic oaths

The oaths and their accompanying gestures resembled certain oaths performed in a particular Freemasonry tradition in western New York at the time, in which participants promised:

Changes

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 removed the explicit descriptions of the three methods of execution and replaced them with the phrase, "rather than do so, I would suffer my life to be taken."

Elimination

In April 1990, the LDS Church eliminated the oaths and the gestures from the endowment.

Confusion with other practices

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, and the penalty oaths were removed in 1990. The penalty oaths are also frequently confused with the concept of blood atonement.

Continued practice by Mormon fundamentalists

Some groups within the Mormon fundamentalist movement continue to practice the endowment without modification. These groups still participate in these oaths when performing the endowment. 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.

Depictions and discussion

Numerous individuals and works have referenced the temple penalties and their manner of execution. The 2022 Hulu series Under the Banner of Heaven (set in the 1980s) depicted the throat-slicing gesture of the pre-1990 LDS endowment ceremony. Author and former Brigham Young University professor Brian Evenson wrote a depiction of the penalties in a novel, and stated "any book that spoke in any detail about the relationship of Mormon culture to violence needed to acknowledge the connection of the temple ceremony to violence." The autobiography Secret Ceremonies by the American journalist Deborah Laake discussed the temple penalties. Writer J. Aaron Sanders stated that the temple penalties were a form of blood atonement. Author Peter Levenda linked Smith's introduction of the Masonic blood oaths into the temple endowment as a step towards later threats of blood atonement for other perceived crimes in Utah territory. Historian Wallace Stegner wrote “It would be bad history to pretend that there were no holy murders in Utah and ... no mysterious disappearances of apostates". Another historian Juanita Brooks stated that violent enforcement of religious oaths was a "literal and terrible reality" advocated by Brigham Young "without compromise". One example cited by historians is in March 1857 when an elderly church member of high standing William R. Parrish decided to leave Utah with his family when he "grew cold in the faith", but had his throat slit near his Springville, Utah home.