Penalty (Mormonism)
In Mormonism, a penalty was an oath made by participants of the original Nauvoo endowment ceremony instituted by Joseph Smith in 1843 and further developed by Brigham Young after Smith's death. Mormon critics refer to the penalty as a "blood oath," because it required the participant to swear never to reveal certain key symbols of the endowment ceremony, including the penalty itself, while symbolically enacting ways in which a person may be executed. 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 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) gradually softened the graphic nature of the penalties, and in 1990, removed them altogether from its version of the ceremony. Original oaths. On May 4, 1842, Joseph Smith instituted the endowment ritual in Nauvoo, Illinois. At three different stages of the endowment, participants were asked to take an oath of secrecy regarding the ceremony . The participants promised that – rather than reveal the content of the ceremony – they would suffer the following: each of the penalties accompanied by gestures known as the "execution  of the penalty" which simulated the actions described in the oath . 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 clarified the verbal description of the oath 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. During the period when these oaths were used, there was no documented instance in which a person was killed or committed suicide for having violated the oaths of secrecy of the endowment. Confusion with other doctrines. 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. Continuation 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