Charity begins at home for oddball cleric Calvin

It has been an inauspicious start to 2025 for oddball cleric Calvin Robinson, one of the few people on the planet considered too extreme even for GB News. Back in January, Robinson got the heave-ho from the Anglican Catholic Church – an obscure body of Christians with an estimated membership of 35,000 – after giving what looked suspiciously like an Elon Musk-style Nazi salute at the end of his address at a National Pro-Life summit in Washington DC.

After telling his audience how “every country in Europe is embracing death” and “America, as far as I can see, is the only country fighting for life”, Robinson gave a raised-armed salute popular in Germany in the 1930s, to cheers from the crowd. Alas, the move failed to provoke a similar response from his employer, who revoked his licence to serve as a priest.

But to paraphrase Job 1:21, what the Lord taketh away the Lord giveth, and now Robinson has… a crowdfunding campaign to buy him a home in Grand Rapids, Michigan! Billing the cleric as “the most cancelled man alive”, the website implores his fans to “give whatever you can afford for this worthy cause”.

Robinson, writes pal the Rev Brett Murphy, “needs all the help we can muster to buy him his own house with a built-in media studio as a base of operations for his local and worldwide ministry alike. Our goal is $350,000 USD to purchase a modest house in Grand Rapids, please give whatever you can afford for this worthy cause, so often Father Calvin says what many wish they could say themselves, he speaks boldly for so many Christians who can’t speak up themselves, let’s all give back a little to help our brother in need”.

Robinson obviously needs room to swing an arm (if not a cat) but just how “modest” a Grand Rapids home he would get for $350k is open to question – the property website Zillow says the average house price there is currently $271,094. However, the good father’s prayers have yet to be answered as donations currently stand at less than 10% of the amount needed to keep him in comfort.