Calvin Robinson has had his licence to operate as a priest within the Anglican Catholic Church removed after performing an Elon Musk-style salute.
Robinson was speaking on the National Pro-Life Summit in Washington DC when he concluded his remarks by telling the audience “my heart goes out to you” and performing the gesture.
It comes days after Musk was accused of constructing a Nazi salute by critics on the time of Donald Trump’s inauguration. Musk responded to the criticism by saying, “Frankly, they need higher dirty tricks. The ‘everyone seems to be Hitler’ attack is sooo drained.”
The Anglican Catholic Church (ACC) said in an announcement that it believed Robinson was attempting to “curry favour with certain elements of the American political right by scary its opposition”.
The ACC also indicated that this was not the primary time that they had raised concerns about Robinson: “Mr. Robinson had been warned that online trolling and other such actions (whether in service of the left or right) are incompatible with a priestly vocation and was told to desist. Clearly, he has not, and as such, his license on this Church has been revoked. He isn’t any longer serving as a priest within the ACC.”
The ACC claimed that mimicking the Nazi salute, even when done in jest, trivialised the Holocaust and the sacrifice of World War Two soldiers and that “such actions are harmful, divisive, and contrary to the tenets of Christian charity”.
Robinson himself has confirmed that the gesture was a joke and that he is just not in truth Nazi.
Writing on X, Robinson addressed the controversy, “For the record, in case it needs saying: I’m not a Nazi.”
Robinson continued, “The joke at the tip was a mockery of the hysterical ‘liberals’ who called Elon Musk a Nazi for quite clearly showing the audience his heart was with them. Context is vital, but sometimes people ignore context to verify their very own prejudices. People see what they need to see.”
The broadcaster and commentator appears to have been caught off guard by the ACC’s decision. He said in one other post on X: “Thank you for all of your lovely, supportive messages. Yes, it does seem my licence has been revoked. I cannot go into any detail yet because I even have none. I’m obedient to my bishops, and I even have not heard from the Archbishop yet – so I have no idea the situation or what I’m in a position to share. I learned this the identical way you probably did, via social media.”
Robinson was defended by his friend, the political activist, Laurence Fox, who questioned the actions of the ACC against someone he described as a “deeply committed servant of god” and a “truly, genuinely wonderful and honourable man”.
