“Come Again?”

Richard Hollerman

According to the official dictionary, this is a common phrase, used in the present and the past. It means (according to the dictionary):

What did you say? as in Come again? I can’t believe you said that. This expression takes the literal meaning of the phrase—return—to ask someone to repeat a statement, either because it wasn’t heard clearly or because its truth is being questioned. [Colloquial; second half of 1800s]

So when I ask the question, as in the title here, we are saying, “What did you say?” It indicates that we can’t believe one actually said something. As the definition above goes on to say, “Come again? I can’t believe you said that.”

But when we do hear or read what someone has said or done something, we really do wonder where the person got something or we may think that we do “hear’ what they have said but we really can’t “believe” that he or she is serious about this.

Today I saw a large sign that read this provocative statement. Lifted high, the sign that a black woman or man presented (and from all appearances, he or she was a “black” person) was something provocative and wrong. (We know that a white, brown, etc. yellow could have been involved too!) So we see the sign that read “Abortion is healthcare.” What? “Come again?”

We know that abortion is the killing of a baby, another human being. For some strange reason, people seem afraid to tell the truth about this. Thus, if we were to “translate” the meaning of the sin, we would read, “Killing babies is healthcare.” But, is this the “healthcare” of the mother who plans to kill her baby? Or are the words of the speaker relating “healthcare” to the one murdered or the one who is murdered (the baby)? Actually, I am not only confused but concerned.

We know what the sign read and that while the meaning was a prominent one, how is it possible that killing is actually “healthcare”?  But we must ask, “Killing babies” or “murdering babies” is “healthcare” for the mother or baby—Which? And what does this mean? How can it be “healthcare”? When a killing is involved, it would seem that it isn’t “healthcare” but “murder prosecution”!

Friends, we fear that the sign represents a lying attempt to promote an agenda—that of killing babies, murdering babies, or having a desire to selfishly pursue one’s chosen pathway. In the meanwhile, the sign-producer was willing to lie in order to get across his or her point! But even if God says that we should not lie (Ephesians 4:25 Colossians 3:9), we doubt that the writer and perpetrator cares!

So whenever you read or hear the lie that this murderer wishes, you might want to say, “Come again!”