Calvin Robinson, who is listed as the priest-in-charge of St. Paul’s Anglican Catholic Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, performed the gesture at the end of a January 25 speech at the National Pro-Life Summit in Washington, DC.
On Wednesday, the Anglican Catholic Church posted a statement that said Robinson’s “licence in this Church has been revoked” after he made a “gesture that many have interpreted as a pro-Nazi salute.”
“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.
“We believe that those who mimic the Nazi salute, even as a joke or an attempt to troll their opponents, trivialise the horror of the Holocaust,” it continued.
Musk’s gesture that Robinson was mimicking came in a January 20 speech during celebrations of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration. Musk slapped his hand on his chest, extended his arm straight out and up with his palm facing down and said, “My heart goes out to you.”
At the close of Robinson’s January 25 speech, he quoted Musk, saying “my heart goes out to you,” before mimicking his straight-arm motion.
In a statement posted to his Facebook page, Robinson said “in case it needs saying: I am not a Nazi,” and that the gesture was a “joke.”
Robinson is from England and in the past has been outspoken about his conservative views, according to a biography on St. Paul’s Anglican Catholic Church’s website.
