The Straight Dope 04/01/2005

The Straight Dope -- By Cecil Adams
http://www.straightdope.com

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THE STRAIGHT DOPE 04/01/2005

Dear Cecil:

I recently saw the movie The Magdalene Sisters on DVD.
Here's the premise: For 150 years, ending in 1996,
teenage girls in Ireland who got pregnant or raped or
were so attractive it was assumed they would eventually
become promiscuous were sent by their parents to
prisonlike asylums run by the Catholic church. Nuns
oversaw day-to-day operations. The girls were forced to
work in laundries from dawn till dusk 364 days a year and
were fed only gruel. The asylums were surrounded by high
walls topped with broken glass and had locked gates and
bars on the windows. Nuns stood guard at night to make
sure no one escaped. Far from being released upon turning
21, these girls were imprisoned for life; in the words of
the movie's mother superior, "I decide when or if you're
allowed to leave." Thirty thousand women were locked up
in these asylums over the years.

I'm assuming even the Catholic church in Ireland wasn't
exempt from laws against false imprisonment and the like,
so these women had to know they were being held
illegally. Despite the high walls and so on, it's hard to
imagine a woman of, say, 35 having remained there since
age 18 or 19 simply because she'd been physically
prevented from leaving. Could a religious organization
hold someone against her will decade after decade?
Wouldn't the more determined eventually find a way out?
The inmates outnumbered the nuns by a wide margin. It's
not like the nuns were armed. What gives? --Mark
Reynolds, Carol Stream, Illinois

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Cecil replies:

I hear you, bud. The common reaction to Peter Mullan's
The Magdalene Sisters (2002), which depicts what amounts
to a church-operated slave labor camp, is disbelief. You
can imagine this kind of thing happening during Victorian
times, but the movie is set in 1964. Was Ireland that
wacky? Was the Catholic church? Sure looks that way. The
scandal didn't break until 1993, and the full story has
yet to be told, but here's what we know so far:

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/050401.html

STAFF REPORT

Dear Straight Dope:

Can you deliver the straight dope on Mormonism? Do their
claims hold water or not? Who wrote the Book of Mormon?
--vanukoff

Guest contributor Rico replies:

First off, a disclaimer. I'm a former Mormon and a
returned Mormon missionary, and consider myself well
versed in the religion even though I am no longer a
member. I'll attempt to present both sides as objectively
as possible.

We'll start with the version told by the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), as the Mormon religion
is formally known. The church's founder, Joseph Smith,
was born in 1805 in Vermont. His father was an
impoverished farmer, but his mother, Lucy Mack Smith,
managed to instruct him in reading, writing, and the
ground rules of arithmetic. 

After moving from Vermont around 1816, the Smiths first
settled in the town (township) of Palmyra in Wayne
county, western New York, and lived there about four
years. Then they moved a few miles south of Palmyra
village to the town of Farmington in Ontario county. The
part of Farmington where they lived, called even then
Manchester, has since become a separate town, still in
Ontario county. Palmyra remained the nearest settlement
of any size to their new home.

In 1820, according to Smith, there was a great religious
revival in his area. He couldn't decide which of the many
sects was right, so after reading the biblical
instruction that any who lacked wisdom should "ask of
God" (James 1:5), he retired to a nearby grove to pray.
While thus engaged he was visited by two personages who
identified themselves as God the Father and Jesus Christ.
They told him to not join any of the religions because
"they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me
said that all their creeds were an abomination in his
sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that they
draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far
from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of
men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power
thereof" (Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith--History,
1:19).

For more, see: 
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mmormon.html

STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC - 08/28/1987

Dear Cecil: 

Why is the New York borough of the Bronx not simply
called "Bronx"? I've consulted encyclopedias, native New
Yorkers, and even a linguist at a leading university. So
far all I've gotten is a partial explanation.   At the
turn of the century when the five boroughs were
consolidated into one city, the large parcel of land
north of Manhattan was owned by a wealthy family named
Broncks. When city dwellers wanted to escape suburbia,
they went up to the Broncks farm or estate. Later the
spelling was changed to Bronx.  But I'm sure there's more
to it than that. Cecil, if I don't get an answer by
August 11, the Lord's gonna call me home. --Norman W.,
Chicago  

Dear Norm:  

I hope you like the Lord's digs better than your previous place
of residence, Norm, because I'm a little late. You know you can't
rush these things.  

You got a few facts scrambled on the Bronx
story. The name of the wealthy family was Bronck
(sometimes spelled Bronk). The clan's patriarch, Jonas,
settled on 500 acres north of the Harlem River in 1639
and promptly affixed his surname to various features of
the local geography, notably the Bronx River.   

As one of his descendants explained, "The termination of `x' 
merely indicates the possessive case. Instead of writing 
Bronk's River or Bronk's farm, the Dutch took the phonetic 
short cut and made `x' do duty for the fusion of `k' and `s';
extremely simple, and a space saver too. Thus, when Jonas
impressed his own family nomenclature on the region he
settled, the Aquahung River became Bronk's River--the
Bronx, as it remains today, correctly expressed in
Dutch." 

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_248.html

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