by JH 27 Replies latest jw friends
I found it funny how some people would literally underline just about everything in the watchtower magazine. The more the magazine was underlined and notes were written, the more a person looked spiritual.
Did it ever happen that you didn't read your Watchtower magazine, and you underlined just about anything just to look as if you read it?
you underlined just about anything just to look as if you read it?
Yes, it's called "Zoro'ing" by my wife and I. Everyone has done it.
My wife will use a highlighter to highlight the scriptures quoted in a study publication before actually studying. Of course, that makes for better looking WT on Sunday in case you can't find time to study
One elder gave a talk about pre study once, he mentioned that 'back in his day' you would have been ashamed to not do prestudy and not have underlined the WT.
The sunday following, EVERYBODY had used thick pink highlighters to underline their Watchtower study. Never a company yes man, I simply turned around and asked that exact elder what Watchtower we were studying, as 'I hadn't looked yet'. lol
From that moment on, I decided never to do underline the Watchtower again, and I didn't. Six months later, I had left.
I literally have taken a pen and just underlined about two lines randomly in every paragraph, and just put an a and a b next to random lines. I could have the article "studied" in about 2 minutes.
Integ.
All of my Watchtower and Book "studies" are prepared in the "Zorro" method. This takes approximately 65 seconds to do.
I remember people that used different colored hi-liters to underline the A and B parts. And, yup, most everybody's mags were totally hi-lited or underlined. I did it myself(way back when I bothered to study). If you hi-lited just the answer, it should have been one or two sentances but occasionally there would be a question that had no answer in the paragraph. So, the answer was to hi-lite the whole paragraph, LOL. Eventually, it becomes habit and sub-consciensiely(?) we figure that "hey, at least it looks like I studied".
We had a WT conductor that not only didn't study, he would forget to bring a magazine with him to the hall and have to scramble around during the talk to find one. He had the audacity to counsel the congregation from the podium during the study about not being prepared enough so as to give thoughtful answers.
I always highlighted WTS "buzzwords" and anything that struck me as strange (my pre-review days). I never looked at the questions. I printed out the scriptures from my good JW website and took them to the study (in spite of directions not too). I would just say that I had bad eyesight, which I do. I would plan a comment that was as close as I could get to my "thought-provoking" ones in my reviews. I always had past WTS comments to support it in case the conductor questioned it later. I always had comments about the culture and history of Bible times and always made application to current times. So not much of what I said was in the paragraph.
Even now when we meet people from the congregation, the first thing they say is "we miss your comments." I'm not surprised. How much of "the paragraph says," "the magazine says," "the slave says," "the Society says" can you take? As one of my Bible students said upon attending their first meeting, "how come they read the paragraph twice?"
The mike carriers do check to see who has underlined their magazines. I think it would be more interesting to see who uses a scripture in their answer.
Blondie
Yes, always in pink or purple. And when I wanted to look extra studious I would write extra comments in the margins!
Na, if anyone asked why my Botchtower wasn't studied, I just told them that I used invisible ink........Let's see if they can disprove THAT one......after all, if Jesus "returned invisibly" in 1914, then why can't I use invisible ink?!
I once had to read the Watchtower on the platform at short notice, and before going up I remember desperately zoro'ing out the back in the toilet so no one would notice I hadn't marked it. Pathetic aye.
Some JW's think u may not make it thru Armageddon if you do not mark up all your publications.
