Attention Christians: Atheists now offering post-Rapture pet care
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Last week, when I glanced through a new proposal from Iggy Dybal, an atheist, real estate broker and a founder of the KC Freethinkers, I thought it was little more than a tongue-in-cheek mockery of Biblical prophesies.
"If you are a Christian who believes in The Rapture and has pets, please, take notice," Dybal wrote in his announcement. "A few atheists in Kansas City are starting a 'Rapture Pets' service to take care of pets when Rapture happens and righteous Christians are taken up in heaven and we atheists are left behind... So, if any of you are anticipating Rapture and you know you'll be taken up during this time, please, think about your animals who will suffer and may die a painful death of starvation, thirst and neglect while the Tribulation Times are happening."
This is no joke. Dybal is dead serious.
For the past year, Dybal and fellow skeptic Cole Morgan have been ramping up the visibility of area atheists. They helped fund a provocative billboard in Overland Park, sponsored a family during the holiday season and even jumped into freezing cold water to make a point about global warming. Their latest idea -- Rapture Pets -- isn't entirely their own.
Dybal says he saw the concept on the Internet and thought it would be a productive way for charitable atheists and god-fearing Christians to come together for a common purpose: the care of animals when the Second Coming has swept away believers and stranded their pets among the heathens.
"This is not a joke," Dybal says. "I'd like to see if we can team up with Christians and Christian churches who understand Rapture and, when Rapture happens, maybe they could assign their churches to us and we can use the church for a dog shelter.
"If a church decides to assign a building for us, everybody in that church gets covered," Dybal continues. "But they'll have to give us their addresses, their dog's medications and also we would like to insure that every churchgoer consider giving us their cars, their homes, their bank accounts, anything, because we'll need all of that to take care of the animals. They won't need it. We will."
The terms of payment will be flexible, Dybal explains and, right now, the logistics are still a little vague. But the KC Freethinker already has called several churches, floating the concept and testing the waters. Several pastors said they don't believe in the Rapture; another noted that God will provide for pets during the End Times. One, Dybal says, expressed "cautious curiosity."
The most pressing priority is finding a believer who buys their idea and helps them spread the word. "My goal is, I would like to find a Christian who truly believes in the Rapture and truly loves animals and would like to be on this team, because the idea comes better from a Christian than an atheist," Dybal says.
But how can Dybal and his animal-loving atheists prove that they're not praying for redemption behind closed doors? "Every month or every week the members of this group will have to click on Web site and verify that they have been blaspheming, and they still have not accepted Jesus," Dybal says.
And, who knows? Maybe caring for Christian pets will benefit the damned. "Everyone wins," Dybal wrote in his proposal. "God will be happy with the atheists and may have an air conditioning unit installed in their particular section of hell to make it easy on them."
There's no Web site yet, but here's the e-mail: Rapturepets@gmail.com
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