Far right "priest" gives "Elon salute" aka Nazi salute at pro-life conference.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

[lame54]

1. The crowd laugh and his smirk...

Gave it all away

[themaguffin]

2. It's not a pro-life conference. Let's not use their fake terms.

[yankee87]

3. Normalize the Zeig Heil salute

MAGA is going to normalize the Hitler within their party. All kinds of excuses. Unfortunately, it may work.

[Irish_Dem]

7. Yes we are supposed to become habituated to Nazi terms and behaviors.

Just supposed to be harmless and fun.

[usonian]

4. History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes

[BannonsLiver]

5. And in another time he'd be first in line for the gas chamber.

History is lost on so many.

[T_i_B]

32. People in the UK tried to explain this point to him repeatedly

He never listened, and instead became an expert race-baiter.

[Baron2024]

6. They Are Coming Out Of The Woodwork

There have always been covert Nazis and Fascists amongst us. I know this because I grew up around some of them. I had an Uncle and some cousins that were basically Nazis. That is a big part of why I am a Democrat and a Progressive. Terrible people. Most of that side of the family is deceased. These people used to be undercover but this new Regime has them emboldened and now they are coming out of the woodwork. God help us.

[lonely bird]

8. OK

First, he is a priest. He is not a priest of the Roman Catholic Church, any Orthodox Churches or other mainline sects. He is a priest of the Continuing Anglican Church which is a splinter and not in the Anglican Communion. The Continuing Anglicans rejected the 1979 prayer book and decided to stay with the 1928 prayer book.

Basically, they are reactionary and fearful of change like many millions in our country.

As for giving a Heil Elon/Trump (take your pick)? That is unsurprising.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

13. He can call himself whatever he wants.

I refuse to recognize his ordination.

[Nigrum Cattus]

25. Agreed

Another supporter of the AMERICAN TALIBAN

[lonely bird]

29. His ordination is...

No different than the ordination of any other priest.

His Nazi-ist crap is unsurprising.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

30. Agree to disagree.

He is an evangelical protestant cosplaying as a Catholic.

[T_i_B]

33. Actually no.

Calvin Robinson has recently had quite a spat with some of the "reformbros" over his some of his theological stances. Including Mr Robinson labelling John Calvin as a heretic, which obviously upset the Calvinists and resulted in him being cancelled from some of his speaking engagements.

Link to tweet

?t=0tnXVVChD8hXwXXY_B3W2Q&s=19

[Dave Bowman]

26. So he's in two cults for the price of one then.

[T_i_B]

34. The Church of England refused to ordain him

So instead he's been through a number of small denominations, and has just been kicked out of the one he was with due to his blatant nazi ideology.

Link to tweet

?t=KZx4J1EtV5mbIsq0HVBTPg&s=19

[dalton99a]

10. Fake priest is an incel nutjob

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Robinson

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. You have to be really far right to get sacked from GB News

Robinson also had a lying website about his tiny church of nutjobs, trying to make it look like a far larger normal one near it.

I didn't know he'd moved to the USA. Sorry, but he will fit in with the MAGA crowd - like that pastor who spoke (said a prayer, something) at Trump's inauguration, and then launched a memecoin to make bucks on his brief celebrity.

[T_i_B]

35. He'd already gone down the anti-Semitism rabbit hole

Forging an alliance with one of the worst, most extreme figures in so-called "Christian" Nationalism.

Although his Anglo-Catholic theological stances didn't endear him to many in that movement.

Link to tweet

?t=sQRInVshqI0FD7x-FQTtdQ&s=19

Link to tweet

?t=eogH-UikmGL1HViR3t_jjw&s=19

[muriel_volestrangler]

42. His Fucking Around with the salute means he's Found Out his new sect has kicked him out too

Their statement reads:

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. In it, he closed his comments with 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 favour with certain elements of the American political right by provoking its opposition. 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 ACC is not actually a Catholic Church. They are a sect that left the Episcopal Church after they decided to ordain women and are sort of a Church of England/Catholicism hybrid. So, like, the anti-abortion church that hated women enough to start its own religion was woke enough to know that the gesture Robinson made was a bad gesture. That’s certainly saying something, when so many have been doing the “Oh gosh, who can really say? Maybe it was just an awkward gesture?” tango for the last week and a half. (Only that long? Really? Because it feels like it’s been a year.)

The ACC went on to explain it for the Elons in the back:

Furthermore, we understand that this is not just an administrative matter. The Holocaust was an episode of unspeakable horror, enacted by a regime of evil men. We condemn Nazi ideology and anti-Semitism in all its forms. And 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. Such actions are harmful, divisive, and contrary to the tenets of Christian charity.

https://www.wonkette.com/p/even-anti-abortion-anglican-catholics

The question is, does that mean he's unemployed in the USA, and he'd have to return to Britain? Every blue sky has a dark cloud in it somewhere.

[T_i_B]

43. I'm wondering if he'll end up on a "no-fly" list!

Given his fondness for extremism.

It's amazing how often Mr Robinson burns bridges with people, and how he refuses to accept any kind of responsibility when he messes up.

His response to the inevitable backlash has been to claim that it was a joke. There are 2 major problems with this argument.

1) It was totally unfunny.
2) Mr Robinson has been making overtly, blatantly anti-Semitic statements, which show him to be less than sincere on this point. And that's putting it kindly.

[Emrys]

22. He's been a laughing stock for a few years in the UK, and decided the grifting was more rewarding in the US

His nicknames on this side of the Pond include "Altar Mitty", and his antics have included trying to get his "followers" to crowdfund buying a Scottish island where he and they could hang out and ... well, who knows? If I didn't live in Scotland, placing his proposed and failed settlement a bit too close for comfort, I'd be all for removing him and his ilk from anywhere they were likely to inflict themselves on the rest of us.

His last claim to fame was a failed attempt to get the actions to "YMCA" going when onstage with Trump - from which, for some reason, Robinson didn't die of embarrassment:

https://www.instagram.com/calvinrobinson/reel/DBr9YaPRx20/

[sakabatou]

11. The world is riddled with maggots, the maggots are getting fat

They're making a tasty meal of all the bosses and bureaucrats
They're taking over the boardrooms and they're fat and full of pride
And they all came out of the woodwork on the day the Nazi died

[ancianita]

12. Nazis within Germany itself murdered 8,000 disabled children. Nazis killed 1,300,000 more children outside Germany.

Remember: No pro-life person gives a Nazi salute.

This so-called propagandist Anglican (UK) does not in any way represent the 407,000 ordained Catholic priests worldwide whose spiritual guidance is that of Francis, Bishop of Rome, always and forever an anti-Nazi, as is the Catholic Church.

Since 2024, he has been a priest in the Anglican Catholic Church; from 2022 until his priestly ordination in 2023, he had been a deacon in the Free Church of England, a conservative Anglican realignment denomination, then until 2024 a priest in the Nordic Catholic Church, a conservative Old Catholic denomination.[1][2]

As a political commentator, he is typically characterised as conservative and right-wing, and sometimes as far right, labels which he has rejected. Up to 2021 he was a regular contributor to The Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail, and Spiked, and he has written once for First Things.[3][4][5][6] Robinson also featured as a commentator on talkRADIO and presented a regular show on GB News until he was dismissed from the latter in 2023. In February 2024, he moved his "Common Sense Crusade", which was formerly on GB News, to The Lotus Eaters,[7] and is a recurring host on their podcast.[8] On Jan. 25, 2025, while speaking at the National Pro-Life Summit in Washington, DC,[9] Robinson gave a salute similar to the Nazi salute[10] performed five days earlier by Elon Musk at a rally celebrating Donald Trump's second inauguration.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Robinson

53% of Democrats are Christian. It's a mistake to interpret from this video that Christians might be stereotyped as "Nazi adjacent," or distrusted because of one Anglican pro-trump minister.

Just because Right Wing Watch conveys right wing talking points, doesn't mean DU should.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

14. Nowhere did I say this was an implication of Christians.

I am one. That's why certain things were put in quotations.

[ancianita]

19. Nowhere did I say you did, brother.

I'm posting to more than an audience of one here. Appreciate that you put "priest" in quotes.
1A free speech rights notwithstanding, I still hold that Right Wing Watch has different goals than DU does, even in General Discussion. No offense, but IMHO, this just doesn't feel like positive messaging.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

21. What is there to be positive about right now?

The rise of fascism around the globe is an existential threat.

[ancianita]

23. That's one perspective, given the trends of news.

Probably true. But the positive side of this is that there are far more helpful humans and oligarchs than there are fascist oligarchs and clerics.

It might be more helpful to look for what helps us -- like the successes of the pro-democracy allies we have -- rather than acts that provoke dread and fear by Mammon worshippers.

Just sayin' this: our perspective can be based on
a) positive values and principles like freedom; or
b) fear from what gets online attention and clicks.

Reading is thinking. I can't recommend this book enough. Snyder, in plain talk, amazingly clears up who's up against us.

[Emile]

15. I better buy up on ammo.

You never know when a Nazi might show up looking for trouble.

[spanone]

17. I doubt Jesus wants a nazi priest in his flock....

fuck off father.

[Think. Again.]

18. It is no longer the rightwing...

It is now the naziwing.

[sarisataka]

20. If, *IF*, Musk's salute was some "misunderstanding"

(which it wasn't) this person's deliberate action, followed with a knowing smirk, was done in full knowledge he was acting like a Nazi.

If it goosesteps like a Nazi, talks like a Nazi and salutes like a Nazi, well by gosh it IS a Nazi

[PortTack]

24. Priest? That's a stretch...he's a grifter like the rest of them

[Joinfortmill]

27. Despicable beyond words.

[Deep State Witch]

28. How Very Benedict XVI

Of him. He must have been a big fan of Papa Nazi.

[iemanja]

31. Does he actually think the Nazis wouldn't target him?

Some of these people are insane.

[Skittles]

37. fans of fascism NEVER envision themselves as its victims

they are too fucking stupid

[Skittles]

36. pro-life and pro-nazi

sure bro

[C0RI0LANUS]

38. The former computer science teacher, video games journalist, and Jackson Five reject had his ministry license revoked.

Source:

https://protestia.com/2025/01/30/calvin-robinson-gets-ministry-license-revoked-after-making-nazi-salute-at-pro-life-rally/




RIP Michael, you went too soon.

[PunkinPi]

40. Per Catherine Rampell (WAPO/CNN), he's been defrocked by the Anglican Church

https://bsky.app/profile/crampell.bsky.social/post/3lgwlljfgvs2s

Statement on Calvin Robinson:

[T_i_B]

41. This is the Anglian Catholic Church

The actual Anglian Church refused to ordain him due to concerns about his hard right political activism.

He's since been ordained by the Free Church of England, and left them.

Then he was ordained by the Nordic Catholic Church, and left them.

And now the Anglian Catholic Church has kicked him out.

The actual proper Catholic Church won't touch Calvin Robinson with a barge pole, and despite his theological views being very closely aligned to Catholicism, he does like to denounce the Pope as being "woke". (Calvin Robinson denounces most things as being woke, but there you go.)