Underlining the answers in the Watchtower magazines

by JH 27 Replies latest jw friends

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  Oroborus21

  I never thought someone was more spiritual by the way they highlighted or underlined their publications at the KHall just the way I never was impressed by my law-school colleagues who highlighted like crazy or made elaborate outlines.

  IN both cases I gave consideration to the persons' actual comments (or lack of participation) in assessing how much they had actually studied (although frankly I didn't care how much or how little other folks studied.)

  As for me I NEVER liked underlining or highlighting WT publicatons, though I do so with most of my own books, but not the Society's publications.

  I was counseled several times and always gave the same answers: I don't do it. 2) It doesn't interfere with my consideration and answering of the material and participation at the meeting.

  HOW Big of a MORON do you have to be anyway to have to "PRE-STUDY" only to recite an ANSWER that is in the paragraph you just read?!

  If anyone DARES to answer outside of the paragraph or the scriptures in the particular paragraph, BRINGING IN outside scriptures or God Forbid YOUR OWN RESEARCH, that brought and still brings extreme censure and a critical eye from the friends and elders.

  Anyway the REASONING that the Society uses to justify this behaviour or admonition whatever is so as to FACILITATE PARTICIPATION at meetings, so my second answer above and asking the questioner to evaluate my participation, pretty much shut them up since they couldn't claim I didn't participate, thoughtfully and wisely. At most they would say well you could be even better if you studied in advance! :-)

  As a final reason, the one that usually brought and end to the question was that I would say that I liked to PLACE the literature after I was done with it, or leave it at Not at Homes,etc. so that this way the literature did not go to waste or was only recycled after we were done with it.

  -Eduardo
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  Soledad

  underlining was a very big issue with my mother and with the elders in the congregation. there was one elder who claimed that he would study no less than 5 hours, and recommended we all do the same on Saturdays
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  rocketman

  underlining was a very big issue with my mother and with the elders in the congregation. there was one elder who claimed that he would study no less than 5 hours, and recommended we all do the same on Saturdays What soledad says, as well as the rest of the comments, are reasons why I was so turned off by the whole WT study thing (and the whole jw thing). Study for 5 hours? Or like my wife, who put in at least 2, in multi-colored highlighter array? It was craziness. In fact, I came to the conclusion that many people highlighted so much that they in effect negated what they had just done - a whole paragraph in yellow or pink is the same as a whole paragraph with no highlight. It all blends together, nothing stands out. Then there's the folks who proved their spiritual worth by writing most if not all the scriptures in the margin. This cluttered up the page so much, it became a joke. The worse thing is all the time one is expected to spend on it, a magazine (and not the Bible), and have their level of sprituality somehow measured by the time and markings and comments that they made.
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  kitties_and_horses_oh_my!

  Oh my gosh, I was the queen of highlighting! I highlighted in two colors, looked up every single scripture and wrote a synopsis in the margins, did extra research...and why? So I could revel in the little bit of glory I felt when a mike handler would look at my (well-positioned so he and the row behind me could see) my hard work, my spiritual labor of love. I remember feeling bad when I met a pioneer who highlighted and looked up every scripture IN THE ENTIRE MAGAZINE!!
• 

  yxl1

  I must admit, I was quite proud of pulling out my crisp virgin copy of the watchtower on a Sunday morning,

  whilst watching their disapproving looks
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  ChrisVance

  I always underlined and marked a and b in the margins. If I didn't look up all the scriptures I'd feel guilty.
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  Pork Chop

  I always thought excessive underlining was a sign of limited intellect, never did it myself.I also never received any criticism for bringing in scriptures not cited in the paragraph or material from extra research. There must be some real Neandertal congregations out there.
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  undercover

  I always thought excessive underlining was a sign of limited intellect, never did it myself.I also never received any criticism for bringing in scriptures not cited in the paragraph or material from extra research. There must be some real Neandertal congregations out there.

  I always thought bad spelling was a sign of limited intellect. j/k of course. I just couldn't help myself.
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  maxwell

  I used to feel that I had not studied properly unless I had underlined all the answers and read all the scriptures. On the other hand we were discouraged from underlining the entire paragraph. Only one or two lines to answer the question and I did put A and B in the margin. If you underlined the entire paragraph, it appeared that you didn't know the answer to the simple question, so you just underlined everything to obscure the fact that you had no idea what was going on. I used to copy scriptures into the margin, and then we were told only to copy a couple of words in the margin to help you remember the main point of the scripture. I used to dread those lessons that had lots of scriptures or maybe even several chapters to be read. I never did get into the highlighting. Well it's been over a year since I've wasted two perfectly good hours doing that nonesense.
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  KGB

  I used to really piss them off by not even giving an answer from the magazine but from my own interpretation. Eventually they quit calling on me to answer. I wonder why?