Here are a few excerpts from “The Rapture: What you Need to Know” by Michael G. Mickey, to give you a frame of reference. Until I read in today’s paper about a plan devised by an atheist, I had only dimly hard of “The Rapture” and thought perhaps you'd need some background too.

*****One day soon, the world is going to be permanently altered by an event the magnitude of which has never been seen. On a day like any other, millions of people are going to unexpectedly and unexplainedly vanish from the face of the earth.

The Bible reveals, in 1st Thessalonians 4:16-17, that a day will come when "the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
****** End excerpt

Only the devout and sincere Christians will be thus transported. And in The News Press (Fort Myers) this morning I read:

“A forward-thinking entrepreneur (an atheist) is offering to care for pets that belong to people who expect to be saved in the Rapture.

“… the service calls itself “the next best thing to pet salvation in a Post Rapture World.

“More than 100 clients have already signed up, paying $110 for a 10-year contract. The catch, it seems, is that the Rapture has to occur within 10 years of receipt of payment.

“Atheists, who won’t be saved, will take care of the equally Earth-bound pets. The company is called: Eternal Earth Bound Pets.

“The site promises the company has quality atheists lined up in 22 states. ...

“Our representatives have been screened to ensure that they are atheists, animal lovers, are moral/ethical with no criminal background, have the ability and desire to rescue your pet and the means to retrieve them and ensure their care for your pet’s natural life, the firm promises.

“The company is the brainchild of a retired retail exec from New Hampshire, Bart Centre. According to a Business Week story, Centre came up with the idea while working on his book, 'The Atheist Camel Chronicles,' written under the pseudonym Dromedary Hump. In it, he says many unkind things about the devout and confesses that 'I’m trying to figure out how to cash in on this hysteria to supplement my income.'”

I love his guy already. And, of course, sign me up as a pet saver.

xx, Teal