Michigan priest defrocked after making apparent Nazi salute at anti-abortion summit | Michigan

A Michigan priest with the Anglican Catholic church has been removed from his position for making what appears to be a Nazi salute.

Calvin Robinson, who held the title of priest-in-charge at St Paul’s Anglican Catholic church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, performed the gesture at the end of a 25 January speech at the National Pro-Life Summit in Washington DC. The priest appeared to quote Elon Musk, saying, “My heart goes out to you,” before mimicking his straight-arm motion.

According to a statement on the Anglican Catholic church’s website, Robinson’s license in the church was subsequently revoked and he will no longer serve as a priest.

“We believe that those who mimic the Nazi salute, even as a joke or an attempt to troll their opponents, trivialize the horror of the Holocaust and diminish the sacrifice of those who fought against its perpetrators,” the statement reads. “Such actions are harmful, divisive, and contrary to the tenets of Christian charity.”

Robinson posted a statement on his Facebook page on Wednesday defending the gesture as “a joke” in “mockery of the hysterical ‘liberals’ who called Elon Musk a Nazi for quite clearly showing the audience his heart was with them”.

“For the record, in case it needs saying: I am not a Nazi,” he wrote.

He went on to describe his attempt at humor as being “dry wit, in that typical British way” and that the gesture was “not a joke at the expense of WWII, nor an admission of my membership in the Nationalist Socialist Party. That would be an incredibly ignorant and bad faith assumption to make.”

Immediately after video of the incident went viral, comparisons to Elon Musk’s apparent fascist gestures at Trump’s inauguration were made.

Musk went on to make jokes about the gesture and Nazism on his social media platform X that many found in poor taste. Last week, Musk made a surprise appearance at a German far-right rally where he encouraged people to “move beyond” the guilt of past actions, apparently referring to the Holocaust.

“It’s good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything,” Musk said.