In the early 1970’s the Seattle Police were dealing with some serious threats to the community. There were robbers, vandals, criminals assaulting innocent civilians, and worse happening daily in the city. Luckily, the Seattle Police Department had their priorities straight. The police knew that the true threat to the city came from the criminals and degenerates who were drinking alcohol at The Monastery, a gay “Disco Church” located downtown.
One night, the police attempted to publicly shame the clientele of the Monastery. On this night, police made sure that every person in the Church was cited, held in custody, photographed and exposed as the “filthy, dirty sacramental-alcohol-drinkers” that they were portrayed to be. Good job, Seattle police – way to go!
Just one thing, The Monastery held itself itself to be a Church. And yes, perhaps just like the fundamentalists and Holy Rollers danced to the spirit, The Monastery guests may have had some spirits to help them dance too. We tend to forget that prior to the fourteenth century the Catholic Church had a festival called “Carnival”, in which the sacraments were shared by the parishioners throughout the Roman Republics. During these Carnivals, Priests did not speak in Latin, and the frolicking and partying continued through the wee hours of the morning, with revelers worshiping the Lord. Sometimes Parishioners become so intoxicated that they had to be awakened in the morning and removed by the custodians. This tradition lived on at the Monastery, with dancing and revelry through the night at the Disco Church.
…the custom of the churches was thoroughly entrenched in the late Middle Ages and a tolerated—if not actually enjoyed—even by many parish priests. Priest women danced; whole congregations joined in. Despite the efforts of the hierarchy, Christianity remained, to a certain extent, a danced religion.
– Dancing in the Streets, by Barbara Ehrenreich
