Ted Apple's Murder

Okay, here's the link to the PDF file of Ted Apple's Murder. It's a decent-length story (1.5 spacing, Times New Roman with some formatting, brought the story proper to about 23 pages.) I'm going to post the "Disclaimer and Invitation" section below, along with the link to the PDF file. If the ideas of the story create interesting enough discussion there will probably be further posts on them, and what the heck I was thinking when I did x,y,z in the story.

You can download the PDF of the story here. I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer and Invitation
“Sanctification means I kick you less as time goes on.” - Andy Boyes
“I picked up Animal Farm expecting a nice, light read about animals.” - Jason Weeks

I wrote this story to explore ideas, and as a sort of love-letter to G.K. Chesterton, is one of the biggest influence on my life and thought. I've been compiling a list of theological notions and themes explored in Ted Apple's Murder and that you can find this list at the end of the story. But I should sincerely caution you against reading the list before you read the story, in no small part because I want feedback on what you as readers get out of it first. I don't want you to know the “right” interpretation of what I am saying because, at the risk of sounding cocky, God might have had a better idea in mind than mine.

That said, the way the story is told (you will discover) involved me in some sense putting words into God's mouth. I admit that as a theologian this takes an incredible amount of hubris, though perhaps not much more than it takes to even be a theologian to begin with. I think I'm doing less damage here than some of the popular speakers, mostly because I am unlikely to reach the same masses of people. I have no illusions—I am a man, and I need to make it clear to you all that not only do I not speak for God (a fact you know already), I know that I do not speak for God. On my better days maybe I behave like Christ, but only by the grace of the Spirit. This is not an attempt at any sort of Scriptural or even Saintly addition to Christianity. It is primarily an exploration of theological ideas in story.

Please do not hesitate to tell me if a theological idea that you think I'm presenting or exploring jumps out at you. I really really do want to know what people are getting out of this. And if you happen to be one of my non-religious friends, I'm also quite interested in what you have to say. The bottom line: If you're reading this and you've got something to say about it, any interaction with its ideas or what you think its ideas are, please tell me. I want to know!

Now that that's clear, I hope you enjoy the story. I suppose I'd also like to know if my writing just sucks, but please be gentle if you find that it does.