{"id":352,"date":"2011-01-28T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-28T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/2011\/01\/fun-friday-witches-curse-romania-over-new-tax.html"},"modified":"2011-01-28T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-01-28T12:00:00","slug":"fun-friday-witches-curse-romania-over-new-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/01\/fun-friday-witches-curse-romania-over-new-tax.html","title":{"rendered":"Fun Friday: Witches Curse Romania Over New Tax"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps it’s because I just caught the Harry Potter exhibit at Seattle’s Pacific Science Center<\/a>, but here’s the religion news story that struck me as the most entertaining this week:<\/p>\n

Romania’s “Witch Tax:” Magic meets bureaucracy<\/a> (Religion Dispatches)<\/p>\n

The thought of Romania’s witches pelting their country with a “volley of curses” — including one that requires “cat excrement and a dead dog” — over a new tax struck me as hilarious at first. But after reading the story again, including the embedded links, I began to appreciate the parallels with some of our own “don’t tax me, bro” Americans. (Perhaps Christine O’Donnell would have reconsidered her “I’m Not A Witch” campaign ad, if this story had come out earlier. In any case, given that Tea Party members are closely aligned with evangelical Christians<\/a>, it’s probably better that the irony just fly over their heads. On broomsticks, if necessary.)<\/p>\n

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.<\/p>\n

*Click here to <\/span>subscribe to Belief Beat <\/span><\/strong><\/a>and <\/span>click here to <\/span>follow Belief Beat on Twitter.<\/strong><\/a> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps it’s because I just caught the Harry Potter exhibit at Seattle’s Pacific Science Center, but here’s the religion news story that struck me as the most entertaining this week: Romania’s “Witch Tax:” Magic meets bureaucracy (Religion Dispatches) The thought of Romania’s witches pelting their country with a “volley of curses” — including one that requires “cat…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nFun Friday: Witches Curse Romania Over New Tax - Belief Beat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/01\/fun-friday-witches-curse-romania-over-new-tax.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fun Friday: Witches Curse Romania Over New Tax - Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Perhaps it’s because I just caught the Harry Potter exhibit at Seattle’s Pacific Science Center, but here’s the religion news story that struck me as the most entertaining this week: Romania’s “Witch Tax:” Magic meets bureaucracy (Religion Dispatches) The thought of Romania’s witches pelting their country with a “volley of curses” — including one that requires “cat…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/01\/fun-friday-witches-curse-romania-over-new-tax.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-01-28T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nicole Neroulias\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fun Friday: Witches Curse Romania Over New Tax - Belief Beat","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/01\/fun-friday-witches-curse-romania-over-new-tax.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fun Friday: Witches Curse Romania Over New Tax - 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