Saturday, September 12, 2026 · Independent editorial

Do not smile at the ovens and call it Jesus

Shelly Headen, a North Carolina Democrat who had party support, wrote that she wanted Trump supporters in concentration camps. She said it from Dachau. Roy Cooper and North Carolina Democrats then backed away. Breitbart’s report is the source. A smile at that gate is not a witness for Jesus.

Matt Mercer writes that Breitbart broke the story Friday morning: Headen posted a Facebook story from vacation showing her in front of ovens at a German concentration camp memorial saying “Visiting Dauchau [sic] Concentration Camp in Germany… This is where Trump supporters belong.” Breitbart says she is seen smiling in front of what appear to be crematorium ovens used by the Nazi SS to burn the bodies of Jews and other prisoners. Dachau is not a punchline. A smile there while wishing camps on your neighbors is not dissent. It is blasphemy against memory and against the image of God in people you hate.

Breitbart also reports Headen told leftist outlet the Assembly after earlier posts that “I’ve sacrificed myself just like Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross and Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln.” That is not courage. That is taking the Name in vain while standing at a site built on industrialized murder. The same piece says she wrote the country’s “only hope” was an attack on U.S. soil preferably Alabama or Louisiana “where the stupid people live.” Guilford County Democrats withdrew support after the posts went public and Roy Cooper’s campaign called the remarks reprehensible while Breitbart notes Cooper had previously called Trump a dictator who had to be stopped. Condemnation after the screenshot is not the same thing as a church that teaches you may not wish ovens on your enemies.

Being a Christian in America this Saturday is refusing the lie that political hatred is holy sacrifice. Keep the cross for the Lamb of God. Keep Dachau for mourning. And do not confuse a Facebook story with discipleship.

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