Priest Gets Defrocked After Mimicking Elon Musk’s Nazi-Like Salute at Anti-Abortion Rally

The now-former priest, who’s also a popular far-right British commentator, told the crowd, “The people who understand, cheer… The people who do not, reach for their pitchforks.” Erm!

Politics
Priest Gets Defrocked After Mimicking Elon Musk’s Nazi-Like Salute at Anti-Abortion Rally

It seems Saturday’s National Pro-Life Summit in Washington, D.C.—where Vice President JD Vance told the women of America to get pregnant right now—was even more wretched than we thought. Calvin Robinson, who used to be a priest at an Anglican Catholic Church parish in Michiganalso spoke on Saturday.

Earlier this week, Robinson, a prominent far-right commentator who moved from the U.K. in 2024, posted a short clip of himself delivering his closing remarks at the anti-abortion rally by imitating Elon Musk’s Inauguration Day salute, which very obviously resembles a Nazi salute. The clip went viral after Right Wing Watch reposted it, and widespread public outrage on Wednesday prompted the church to remove Robinson’s license.

“At approximately 3:00 pm today (1/29) members of the College of Bishops of the ACC were made aware of a post made on X showing the end of a speech made by Calvin Robinson at the National Pro-Life Summit in Washington, DC,” the ACC’s statement says. “In it, he closed his comments with a gesture that many have interpreted as a pro-Nazi salute.” It continues, “His action appears to have been an attempt to curry favor with certain elements of the American political right by provoking its opposition.”

The ACC says it “warned” Robinson that “online trolling” is “incompatible with a priestly vocation and was told to desist.” That didn’t happen! “Clearly, he has not,” the statement concludes, “and as such, his license in this Church has been revoked. He is no longer serving as a priest in the ACC.”

How did we get here, you may ask, a mere 10 days into Donald Trump’s presidency?? Let me back up.

On Inauguration Day, Musk, a noted charisma void, celebrated Trump’s victory by declaring that he was throwing his heart out to the crowd, something that no one does—let alone someone like Musk, who very clearly does not have a heart to throw at all. “My heart goes out to you!” he declared, slamming his hand into his chest and then throwing out his arm in what neo-Nazis across the internet have been celebrating as a Sieg Heil. He then performed an encore salute for good measure. Whether intended as a Nazi salute or not, that’s certainly what it looked like. Musk has refused to apologize, instead opting to tweet Nazi puns with laughing emojis.

And now, as expected, Musk’s “salute” and subsequent trolling are prompting supposedly ironic copycats.

“Every country in Europe is embracing death,” Robinson said on Saturday, referring to abortion. “America, as far as I can see, is the only country fighting for life. And that’s down to you guys. So God bless all of you for doing what you’re doing. Please keep doing it.” He conspicuously did not mention the five confirmed abortion-ban-induced maternal deaths in Georgia and Texas in 2024.

Robinson concluded, “I hope that I can encourage you, and my heart goes out to you,” then performed the obscene gesture with a smile on his face, drawing a disturbing wave of applause and laughter.

After Robinson posted the clip, he immediately self-victimized, as conservatives are wont to do. “Today I received hundreds of nasty calls, texts, voicemails and emails today from very bitter, angry, vile leftists,” Robinson tweeted after people yelled at him for *checks notes* smugly performing an apparent Nazi salute. “They are often the very thing they accuse you of. I am not a Nazi. But I forgive you of your ignorance. My heart goes out to you!”

Following this show of trolling, the ACC dismissed and defrocked Robinson. But he’s only doubled down via a lengthy Facebook post on Wednesday evening. “For the record, in case it needs saying: I am not a Nazi,” the post says. Off to a great start!

Then, seemingly taking a page from alleged serial sexual harasser Andrew Cuomo’s insistence in 2021 that he’s not perverted and is just “Italian,” Robinson attempted to blame his Nazi-like salute on being British. (Erm, who’s going to tell him the Brits actually fought the Nazis in World War II??) “My attempt at dry wit, in that typical British way, was not a joke at the expense of WWII,” he wrote. 

Robinson, who boasts a significant following on social media after frequently appearing on right-wing shows in the U.K., left the Church of England in 2022 after not being offered a deaconship, per Rolling Stone. He subsequently accused the church of discriminating against him for his right-wing politics. Of course, not only does being punished for right-wing politics seem pretty rare these days, but that hardly seems likely coming from a literal church. Robinson then joined St. Paul’s Anglican Catholic Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in September 2024.

“The responses are very telling, though. The people who understand, cheer—those who have eyes to see. The people who do not want to understand, reach for their pitchforks,” he continued in his Facebook post. Robinson then called the salute a “joke,” even though those are supposed to be funny, and claimed to be mocking “the hysterical ‘liberals’ who called Elon Musk a Nazi for quite clearly showing the audience his heart was with them.”

“Context is key, but sometimes people ignore context to confirm their own prejudices. People see what they want to see,” Robinson said.

I’m glad the ACC did the very obvious right thing here, and I admit I had a little chortle at the utter, bonkers stupidity of Robinson’s comebacks (“I’m not a Nazi, YOU’RE a Nazi!”). But this is all undeniably bleak. Musk performed an apparent Nazi salute before the whole world last week, and now, a lot of awful people think doing so is not only OK but a fun party trick to own the libs and simultaneously embolden neo-Nazis across the country. Great! 

 
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