A Michigan priest has been stripped of his license by the Anglican Catholic Church after imitating a straight-arm motion made by Elon Musk, a gesture that some interpreted as resembling a Nazi salute.
Calvin Robinson, who served as the priest-in-charge at St. Paul’s Anglican Catholic Church in Grand Rapids, performed the motion at the conclusion of his speech on January 25 at the National Pro-Life Summit in Washington, D.C.
On Wednesday, the Anglican Catholic Church released a statement announcing that Robinson’s license had been revoked due to the controversial nature of his actions. The church acknowledged that while they could not determine Robinson’s intent, the gesture had been widely perceived as aligning with extremist symbolism.
“While we cannot say what was in Mr. Robinson’s heart when he did this, his action appears to have been an attempt to curry favor with certain elements of the American political right by provoking its opposition,” the statement read. “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 Clearly, he has not, and as such, his license in this Church has been revoked. He is no longer serving as a priest in the ACC.”
The statement further emphasized the church’s strong condemnation of Nazi ideology and anti-Semitism, calling the Holocaust an “episode of unspeakable horror” and denouncing any actions that trivialize its history.
Musk’s original gesture, which Robinson imitated, was made during a January 20 speech at events marking Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration. While addressing the audience, Musk placed his hand on his chest, extended his arm outward and upward with his palm facing downward, and said, “My heart goes out to you.”
Robinson echoed both Musk’s words and gesture at the end of his January 25 speech.
Following the backlash, Robinson defended himself in a Facebook post, stating, “In case it needs saying: I am not a Nazi,” and asserting that his gesture was meant as a “joke.”
Originally from England, Robinson has been vocal about his conservative beliefs, as noted in his biography on St. Paul’s Anglican Catholic Church’s website.
