mindgarden saidIt was originally performed in taverns, because the church deemed it too festive and decadent to be allowed in churches or the palace.
(Quite likely some official just didn't like the Germans, and was throwing his weight around.)
Handel previously had been Kapellmeister to German prince George, the Elector of Hanover, who in 1714 would become King George I of Great Britain and Ireland. Handel wrote his Water Music and Royal Fireworks Music for King George. It's difficult to believe any German prejudice would have been tolerated against Handel, the royal court's favorite composer, since the King himself was German.
The very first public performance of Messiah used 2 Cathedral choirs. But public musical performances always were in venues outside churches, not because the church disapproved of the content per se, but because non-liturgical music was not performed in churches (even a royal coronation was a religious rite). Music wasn't played if it wasn't part of the church service; a church couldn't be used for purely musical entertainment, regardless of the material's lofty biblical subject matter.
Furthermore, Handel charged admission, it's one of the ways composers earned their keep, in addition to aristocratic patronage. It simply wasn't permissible for a church in that era to charge the public admission for a profit motive, regardless of the entertainment's content.
No tavern would have accommodated the number of musicians & singers needed, nor the audience to make a profit. I have read no such reports of the first performances of the Messiah. The large public halls used may have been multi-purpose, leading to that misinterpretation.